California Callahans

Tidbits.

2012-01-22T18:40:00.000-08:00

A little late (I had to watch the Patriots beat the Ravens!), but here's our Saturday in Instagram photos:

Jack interrupting my workout. Larabars (Lemon Bar is my favorite). My most favorite lunch. Matt and Scott playing Rambo. Mario Kart. We love Skee Ball. Pretty carousel lights. Yogurt from the best yogurt place on earth. What's become a late-night Saturday tradition.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

All prettied up.

2012-01-16T16:50:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks back, I asked Jess from irocksowhat to design a few little elements for my blog. I freaking love what she did. If you need anything done for your blog, I HIGHLY recommend her. Plus, she offers really awesome free downloads, so be sure to check her blog out! I used my time confined to the couch to finally update my design and layout. What do you guys think?

Not that much is different, and I still need to update all my pages. Anything you see that I need to add or change? There's now a link to my Pinterest if anyone's interested!

And this is what Matt and Jack were doing while I was working away.

Lazy boys.

I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend, especially if it was a long one! I'm still feeling completely under the weather so I'm off to eat a bowl of soup, overdose on Benadryl, and hope I can make it through the day tomorrow!

Sick.

2012-01-15T15:34:00.001-08:00

I'm sorry I've abandoned you all! Last weekend I was sick all weekend with a stomach bug, and this weekend I'm confined to the couch with a horrific cold! Does anyone have any remedies they swear by to get rid of a cold? Neither of us really ever get sick and when I do, I am the biggest baby. So I'm totally miserable right now. I hate being out of commission because I feel like I have SO MUCH to do - stuff to do around the house, adventures to go on, runs to complete - but I know this is exhaustion finally setting in after holidays and a rough couple weeks at work so I need to give myself a break.

One thing I never got to do was share my Christmas pictures! I got my super nice camera for Christmas and would you believe it? I FORGOT IT! I even forgot my point and shoot. So all I had for the whole week was my iPhone to capture Christmas memories.

So just consider this an extended Christmas edition of Tidibts... two weeks late :)

P.S. People have asked for my Instagram name - you can follow me @leahcali!

To do list.

2012-01-02T19:10:00.000-08:00

We started off our new year with a hike at one of our favorite hiking spots, Daley Ranch. We took Jack for his first hike ever. I've always been nervous that his little legs wouldn't be able to carry him, but he was leading the charge! It was so nice to start off being outside and active.

One of my resolutions last year was to get our house to a point I'd be happy with. That did not happen, obviously. It gets hard at times knowing we'll only be here for two more years. I am always conflicted on whether to spend money on projects for our house now, or save for a house when Matt gets out of the Marine Corps. I guess I just need to find a better balance. I'm sure most renters know how I feel, right? I can't be alone!

We still have a to-do list a mile long as far as house projects go though. My family is coming to visit in May and I want the house to look awesome. What you'll see in the upcoming weeks (probably more likely, months):

A vase to lamp transformation

A workbench built by Matt

Another Ikea hack (I'm SOO ridiculously excited about this one!!)

A new table runner

Craft supplies organization

A fancied up powder room

A wreath

A new doormat

DIY window treatments

A DIY headboard

A fancied up laundry room

I also need:

More book storage

A desk chair

A mirror

Bedding

I have unlimited ideas but limited funds. Isn't that always the case? For me it is. Anyone want to donate?

Kidding.

Kind of.

How did you start off your new year? What do you have on your to do list?

Tidbits.

2012-01-01T07:27:00.000-08:00

A laid back, low key New Year's Eve in instagram pictures.

Two thousand eleven.

2011-12-31T13:46:00.000-08:00

We're back! It's always bittersweet, but I'm excited to be back and start planning for the new year.

2011 was not completely horrible. But I'm more than ready for 2012. The new year always feels so full of possibility and opportunity. I love the feeling of starting fresh with a blank slate and that feeling always comes with the start of a new year. I wanted to make and share a list of our resolutions, but things have been really looking up in recent weeks, and I've been feeling really positive, and I just want to focus on riding that momentum into the new year. I don't want to forget to celebrate the accomplishments of the past year, but I anticipate 2012 being full of more laughter, more travel, more relaxation, more peace, more productivity, more creativity, and more time to enjoy simple moments with people I love.

Tonight we're planning on staying in, I think for the first time ever, and I couldn't be looking forward to it more.

Happy golden days.

2011-12-23T19:29:00.000-08:00

We can't wait to get home to spend Christmas with our families for the holidays. We wish you and yours the merriest and brightest holiday!

Wishlisted.

2011-12-21T17:34:00.000-08:00

Giving gifts is actually probably my favorite part of the holiday season. And we actually already exchanged gifts. We kind of have to do an early Christmas just the two of us every year because it's not worth the effort to travel with all our gifts across the country. But I like seeing others' wishlists on their blogs so I thought I'd share ours anyway! Have any guesses on what we got and what we didn't?

Mine:

1. Glacier National Park Pendleton blanket, 2. Gorjana leather wrap bracelet, 3. Banana leaf picnic basket (@ Target), 4. Canon Rebel T2i, 5. Jennifer Zeuner monogram necklace, 6. Lululemon running leggings, 7. Michael Kors watch, 8. Sperry Top-Sider Bahama Boat Shoes, 9. Steve Madden "Tblanket" boots

Matt's:

1. Makita circular saw, 2. Ray-Ban Wayfarers, 3. Brown Carhartt hoodie, 4. J. Crew camp socks, 5. Leather toolbelt, 6. Red Wing 1907 boots, 7. Kettlebell, 8. J. Crew cognac leather wallet, 9. Bosch impact driver

What's on your wishlist this holiday season?

'Tis the season.

2011-12-20T19:16:00.000-08:00

It took me a long time to get into the holiday spirit this year. I didn't even put out all my decorations. But there are two yearly traditions of ours I would never pass up: picking out a nutcracker and ornaments.

This is the new addition to our nutcracker family this year. I love that he's short and stubby. That brings our total up to 4.

And our ornaments this year:

Matt's is the toolbelt. Mine is the fortune cookie. I love fortune cookie fortunes (as you guys might have picked up on, since I always post my fortunes) and I like to think the ornament symbolizes hope and good fortune for 2012.

Our tree still looks the same. I like that from far away it looks all traditional but if you look up close, there's lots of quirky personal ornaments all in there. Check out some other ornaments we love here.

One of my favorite thing about this time of year is relaxing in the glow of the Christmas tree.

I think Jack agrees.

What's your favorite holiday tradition?

Since September.

2011-12-19T20:31:00.000-08:00

We saw three of our favorite bands ever.

(Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, City and Colour)

We drove to LA two of those three times on weeknights. It was totally worth it.

We went to Disney during Halloween time.

We dressed up as Olive Oyl and Popeye for Halloween.

Jack wasn't Sweet Pea, which would have made sense. He was a pirate. We called him Captain Jack. At least we stuck with the nautical theme.

We went apple picking in Julian which was not very successful. There were only teeny tiny apples left. Matt tried one, as you can see. It wasn't good.

We went to Vegas for the Marine Corps ball. We had too much fun the next night.

And we spent Thanksgiving in Big Bear.

Which made me want to stay in the mountains forever. Being in the mountains does that to me every. single. time.

We spent the month of December going to Christmas parties and working and shopping our little behinds off.

Aaaand you're all caught up.

I promise not to get this behind ever again.

Hemnes hack.

2011-12-18T12:34:00.000-08:00

One of my New Year's resolutions from last year was to finish the house. It's not even close to done. Fail. Projects pretty much came to a halt, like, back in June. Life is so busy! Anyway, we are finally getting back to work on the spare room. The first project I did was my filing cabinet. Then I tackled this Hemnes dresser from Ikea.

I really wanted to get rid of my Hemnes and pick up a vintage piece with some interesting details, but anyone that owns a Hemnes knows they are pretty solid pieces of furniture (for Ikea furniture, I mean), so I decided to hold onto it and add some details myself.

My Hemnes before:

My Hemnes now:

I didn't take any progress pictures, because I was l-a-z-y. Matt kept asking, aren't you going to take any pictures? I just shook my head no. Sorry, folks. I'll be better next time. I will give you a run down of what we did though and if you have any questions please ask!

So, I completely took apart the dresser because the inside has super cute yellow striped drawer liners, see:

and I didn't want to chance messing them up at all. And I didn't want to deal with tape. Tape is the worst.

I used a coat of Zinsser Cover Stain. Then two coats of paint. On the drawers is Allen and Roth paintable wallpaper from Lowes. I attached it with light spray adhesive, and the wallpaper needed two coats of paint because it was absoooorbent. Then we attached the molding (that I primed and spray painted white) that we bought from a local woodworking shop with Gorilla super glue (make sure you don't get the one that dries white). Then I added two coats of this Minwax Polycrylic to the whole piece. Since it's water based it's easy to use and clean up. And I used satin finish because I didn't want this piece too shiny. The Anthro-esque nobs I got off eBay for a lot less cheese than they're sold for at Anthro.

Here's a side by side:

We want to find some wood appliques for the top drawers that mimic the pattern in the wallpaper but as of now I'm pretty stoked about it. What do you guys think?

Tidbits.

2011-12-17T20:14:00.000-08:00

Saturday in iPhone pictures.

Matt's wrapped gifts. Gifting my addiction to others. Jack guarding his Christmas present with his life. One of my Christmas presents (Fleet Foxes' self-titled album on vinyl, I love the album art). My hippie boots, another Christmas gift from my love. Hershey mint truffle kisses, orrr the most addictive candy on the planet. My fortune which I hope my boss thinks is true. Wearing nothing but glitter on my nails until 2012. A sneak peak at a REALLY exciting project we will be showing you tomorrow!

I know, how random of me to show up out of nowhere! Basically me and Matt looked back at the blog and realized how awesome it is to have a record of all the things we do and a place to share our fun. So we should be around these parts much more often. Which I know I said before. I promise to try my hardest to stick to it this time!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Never forget.

2011-09-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

Today and every day I remember and pray for our great country and all the people whose lives have been affected by the September 11th attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the men and women who risk their lives every day to protect our freedom and safety.

We will never forget.

Looking forward.

2011-09-06T22:08:00.000-07:00

Happy September!

I hope your month started off with a fabulous long weekend. I really wanted to get out of town, but we had a nice long weekend at home. It was a weekend of snuggling and laughing and relaxing and creating. Last night we took a long walk around the neighborhood and spotted a double rainbow. I felt like the guy in this video, but it was really unbelievably beautiful and really went all the way across the sky. And it was while the sun was setting so the sky was all purply and pink. I wish I took a video. I've never seen anything like it, not even when we lived in the Rainbow State of Hawaii!

I'll take it as a sign that September is going to be a good month.

I'm so happy September is here. September 1st, to me anyway, signals the first day of fall (even though it was literally 100 degrees and more humid than I've EVER felt it in SoCal today). I'm looking forward to lots of fall activities and escaping to somewhere where the leaves change colors. And when the seasons change, I always feel a renewed sense of spirit, creativity, and optimism. But I especially feel that way with fall. I think it's the New England girl in me.

Trying to remember how I ever got through deployments.

2011-08-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

Guys. I'm not really afraid of bugs. I'll squish any thing I see. But Friday as I was running out the door for work, I saw a big black blob out of the corner of my eye in the downstairs bathroom. Then I saw this:

I literally froze. My mouth was open. A little squeak came out. And I did not know what to do.

I don't know if you guys can tell but this spider is bigger than a half dollar. You can't just SQUISH something that big. I was already running a little late so I didn't have much time to think about what to do. My biggest concern was the spider crawling across the entire house and biting Jack while I was at work and poisoning him and Jack dying. Obviously, I was thinking rationally. So I decided needed to trap the spider in the bathroom somehow. I'm sure every one of you is thinking duh, throw a bowl over it. Well, that would be the rational thing to do. Like I said, I was totally thinking rationally. Not. Instead, I closed the door and rolled up the doormat and stuck it in space between the door and floor so the spider could not get out.

Then I called Matt and told him about it. He laughed at me, probably in disbelief at my stupidity. He reminded me spiders, even giant ones, can fit through little spaces. Then I worried about the spider escaping and killing our pup all day. Until I got this text:

Thank goodness for husbands. And non-deployable jobs.

Tidbits.

2011-08-14T20:04:00.000-07:00

I'm trying really hard to blog regularly, including documenting our less than eventful Saturdays with Tidbits. We deemed this a "TCB" weekend which in the Callahan household means a weekend to Take Care of Business - aka - do a bunch of boring stupid crap that we've been putting off. Anyone else abbreviate everything and make up catch phrases for random stuff? Sometimes I feel like we have our own language.

Anyway, our Saturday in iPhone pictures:

Started off my morning with a fried egg and turkey sausage... um, yum.

Out of focus hand holding.

Just cruising.

My work shoe of choice stacked on the stairs - so pretty right?

My favorite salad (spinach, chickpeas, grape tomatoes, olives, feta, no dressing).

This month's random act of kindness for my love (see this post).

FINALLY picked up supplies for my Hemnes hack (I know most of you follow for my DIYs, but do not fear, lots of projects are finally in progress)!!

Jack enjoying a belly scratchin' from his daddy.

Is there anything that brings such joy as checking things off a to do list? (I'm a compulsive list maker)

Zucchini gondolas.

2011-08-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday evening! Did the weekend fly by as fast for everyone else as it did for me? I don't even want to think about the fact that I have to be up in 10 hours for work. Ugh.

Anyway, I made a really delicious meal last night and I wanted to share it with you guys in case anyone is still planning meals for the week! They're just zucchini boats with Italian turkey sausage and veggie filling. I told a friend at work about them and she suggested calling them zucchini gondolas. We laughed for like 10 minutes about it. So that is now my title of choice.

What you need:
5 zucchini
1 lb Italian turkey sausage
8 oz mushrooms, diced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
green bell pepper, diced
1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried basil
mozzarella cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper

What to do:
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Slice each zucchini lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon.
3. Heat about 1 tbsp olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and pepper and saute until onions become transparent. Add garlic and saute another minute or two.
4. Add turkey sausage to skillet, making sure to break it up while cooking. Cook until sausage starts to brown.
5. Add crushed tomatoes and mushrooms. Stir. Add all the spices and salt and pepper to taste. Stir. Cook until the mixture has thickened up a little bit.
6. Spoon the mixture into the empty zucchini halves. Place the filled zucchinis in a baking dish filled with a little bit of water, about 1/2 an inch or so.
7. Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
8. Sprinkle mozzarella on (as much as you prefer!) and bake for another 5 minutes or until the mozzarella is melted.

Feel free to add or adjust the recipe to your liking. Enjoy!!

Kale chips.

2011-08-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

These things have been floating all over the internet lately. I decided I finally needed to try them.

Oh my word, it is amazing that a bitter leafy green can taste so delicious. I literally can't stop eating them. Like potato chips.

Have you jumped on the kale chip bandwagon? If not, and you're trying to work some more leafy greens into your diet, try these. Just one bunch of kale, one tablespoon olive oil, and some sea salt. Or you could make your own variation! Bake at 300 for 20 minutes.

July in iPhone pictures.

2011-07-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

I really want to thank you guys who have stuck by me and kept reading and commenting on my sporadic posts! I'm making it a goal for August to post regularly.

Anyway, I can't believe July is OVER! Did it fly by for anyone else? It was a busy month for us. Wanna know what we've been up to?

As I posted last time, my best friends came. We played tourist for a few days with them.

We spent the Fourth of July on the beach.

Jack turned THREE!

I took a million pictures of the boys snuggling.

We went to the OC fair. Matt ate a funnel cake. I tried deep fried Thin Mints. I wasn't that impressed.

Oh. Yeah. WE WENT HOME!

I don't think I could love my nephews any more. I cherish every moment I get to spend with them.

And.... I booked a trip to HAWAII! For our anniversary.... next year. 358 days till we breathe in island air! Can you tell I'm beyond stoked?

So that's pretty much it. You're caught up on our lives. We wanted to hike this morning but it rained for the first time since February. Of course. Now we're gonna spend the afternoon watching Boardwalk Empire. What have you been up to?

Five things making me happy right now.

2011-07-02T17:41:00.000-07:00

So, I've been a negative nancy lately, which is really why I haven't been posting. Or in the mood to do anything creative. The end of school was a couple weeks ago, and not only did one of my favorite co-workers get promoted to a higher position in a different division of the organization (meaning I'll no longer be working with her), but two of my favorite kids graduated the program. I didn't deal well with it at all. Our little classroom is/was like a family. I really didn't realize how sad I was going to be, so I was overwhelmed when it came time for goodbyes. And I'm not good at goodbyes anyway.

And then, there are just lots of other things in my life I'm not happy with. Before I got my job, my main source of unhappiness and frustration was NOT having a job that I love. And now that I've got that, other things that I never even realized bothered me before are starting to really trouble me. It's no fun.

With that being said, I think you can decide to be happy. So that's what I'm going to do. And I'm going to focus on some things making me happy right now.

Upcoming concerts.

When we lived in Hawaii, we NEVER got to see our favorite bands play because they never came out to the islands. Obviously, now that we're in California, that's no longer a problem. I cannot wait for September.

Friendship bracelets.

I love that these are trendy, it makes me giggle. My best friends from home send me care packages from time to time, and the latest one I received had the two bad Larry's on the left in it, that they actually made. True friendship bracelets. I love my friends. And I made the one on the right while watching hours of Toddlers & Tiaras... ha!

My new planner.

I love organization. Enough said.

Yellow TOMS.

I really hope you've heard of TOMS. I'm a big fan. And I've been not so patiently waiting for them to restock or release some solid yellow classics. These will be on my doorstep on Tuesday and I couldn't be more thrilled.

Finally, this little fortune.

I was having a really rough day and for some reason, when I opened this fortune cookie it made me giggle. The next day, out of nowhere, my best friends called and asked if they could come visit. And I'm leaving in 5 minutes to go get them from the airport. How's that for happiness and good fortune?

Part III: Desert Sands and Little Denmark.

2011-06-04T19:50:00.000-07:00

And guess where we stayed that last night?

The Madonna Inn. Yeah, we thought it would be a one time thing too, but when I realized it would probably be best to stay somewhere closer to San Luis Obispo our last night, we couldn't stay away from the tackyness. Our room was not that exciting this time. I booked it the morning we left and this was all that was left - Desert Sands.

How is that Desert Sands? Oh well, the giant piece of black forest cake we ate in bed after dinner in the steakhouse made up for it.

Delicious, delicious cake.

That morning we ate breakfast in downtown SLO. Which is so pretty. After living in Hawaii and Southern California, I love NOT seeing palm tree-lined streets once in a while.

Then we checked out Bubblegum Alley. Pretty disgusting, huh? But pretty fun to see nonetheless.

Our last stop was Solvang. It's the Danish capital of the U.S. Or so it says. It's a cute and fun tourist destination.

We ate danish... obviously. And we bought a magnet (we collect tacky magnets from everywhere we go) that's a miniature pair of clogs. Totally worth it.

We also noticed this burger place, The Habit, all throughout northern LA and the central coast that had lines out the door at every location.

Tried it, loved it, wish it was in San Diego. It's a step above fast food and dare I say, better than In-N-Out? I mean, I was able to add avocado! But Matt disagrees.

Basically the intent of our trip was to see everything on the California coast that we missed the first time, and I think we met our goal. At least on our map we got to fill in all the bare spots.

Now we can focus on the inland destinations - Napa, Yosemite, Palm Springs, anyone?

And I can focus on finishing my guest room!

Part II: A castle and other sights.

2011-06-02T20:27:00.000-07:00

The next morning we woke up early and headed north. We discovered Highway 154 when we drove back from San Francisco and I love it. It is impossible to describe how beautiful and expansive the views are and of course, pictures don't do it justice.

We made sure to stop in Morro Bay to get another view of this rock that I swear must have been placed there by aliens.

We also stopped in Cambria which is the cutest little town, but this time we had one destination in mind: Nit Wit Ridge.

It's a house made entirely of trash, built by a garbage man with his own two hands over a few decades using materials he found on his trash runs. I can't decide if it's gross or awesome, but it's actually a California historical landmark. Just a very bizarre historical landmark.

Nit Wit Ridge is sometimes called Poor Man's Hearst Castle. Which we saw next.

Oh don't worry, this is just a side entrance to a guest house.

Gorgeous pool and views.

Gorgeous grounds.

Some guest quarters. Love the Morrocan tile.

The main entrance to the main house, Casa Grande.

The dining room was probably my favorite.

Or the indoor pool, literally tiled with gold.

Actually, as dorky as it may be, my favorite thing(s) about the whole castle were the ornate ceilings. Should I say it again? Gorgeous.

It's amazing what money can buy.

Part 1 of a much needed escape.

2011-05-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness. I'm sorry for my unintentional absence. Blogging can just be like a vicious cycle. I had lots to post and then it got overwhelming so I put it off. And the more I put it off the more overwhelming it got. Anyone know what I mean? When I finally went to catch up, Blogger was down. And then I started getting kind of mean emails.. about people unsubscribing because of me not posting enough. So I was just kind of over it.

BUT.

We just got back from a weekend in Santa Barbara (and other random parts of the central coast) and I feel refreshed. I'm not even going to bother filling you in on the past few weeks, I'm just starting fresh. So, Santa Barbara.

When we went to San Francisco in September, we also drove the PCH and there were a few key places we missed due to time constraints - Santa Barbara being one of them. I have been to Santa Barbara before, but Matt hasn't, and I knew it was worth a trip. We are obsessed with mountains and Santa Barbara is set against a ridiculously gorgeous backdrop of mountains. I basically just started at the mountains the whole time instead of what I was supposed to be looking at.... and I'm only partly joking.

We stayed at the Presidio Motel - an old style motel that the owners updated. The rooms were fun and clean, the location was good, and the price was right. And I loved the sun deck.

The first night we watched the Bruins game (yeaaah B's!) in the hotel and ate a late dinner at Los Agaves. I'm not an expert on authentic Mexican food, but this was probably the best Mexican food I've ever had. I had ridiculously delicious enchiladas. And Matt demolished his wet burrito before I could take a picture.

The next day we woke up and I found my dream house on the walk to breakfast. Yes, I pretty much find a new dream house in every city we visit. But seriously I want to live here. The second picture is the side of the house. Huuuuuuge house.

Then we went up to the old mission and they were having some sort of festival this weekend where they turn all the pavement surrounding the mission into a big canvas for chalk/pastel artists. We got there early and they were just starting, but how amazing is this? I wish we went back before we left to see the finish products.

The mission itself was pretty amazing - I mean, the Santa Barbara mission is supposed to be the mother of all missions. It did not disappoint.

It's still in use, which makes the sanctuary even more spiritual and enchanting.

Then we went to the Santa Barbara courthouse, which is also still in use. If I had to go to court, I wouldn't even be mad.

As you can see, if you like Spanish architecture, Santa Barbara is pretty much your mecca.

And the view from the clocktower of the courthouse. Breathtaking.

Finally, we walked the beach path and ate some seafood on the pier. This was our view. See the mountains? Well duh, you do. They're gorgeous.

And after watching some UFC (yes, again, we had to keep up with our sporting events while on vacation), we went for a late night In-N-Out run. We usually try to avoid chain places when on vacation - you gotta soak up the local flavor, ya know? But we're not technically Californians. So when in California, do like the Californians do and eat In-N-Out. Besides, we're only in California for three more years - gotta take advantage of In-N-Out while we can, right? Perfectly logical, I think.

My mama.

2011-05-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

It's one of the hardest things in the world being a motherless woman. I feel a happy jealousy when I see my friends with their moms. I did not have a mom around to help me with girl stuff, to go shopping with, to watch me go off to prom, to send me away to college, to warn me about boys and watch me fall in love with my (one and only) boyfriend now husband, to fawn over my engagement ring, to help me pick out my wedding dress, or to watch me walk down the aisle. And she will not be there when I have my first child or when I need parenting advice at 2 o'clock in the morning. Truth be told, I do not remember what it feels like to be a daughter. And sadly, I do not remember much about my mother. But I do know this: I was loved.

This is my most favorite picture of my mother - pregnant with me. See, my mom HATED getting her picture taken, and she rarely ever smiled for the camera. Even in her wedding pictures, she mostly has a delighted, serene expression on her face. But I think here, with me in her belly, there's no disguising her joy.

My mom made a living crafting and creating things, and she instilled that creativity in me. She inspired my love of books and learning, reading to me nightly before tucking me in and taking me to the library weekly to check out as many books as I could possibly read. The way she advocated for my brother with autism before there were few resources available is what inspired me to work in social services. And although I miss what I do remember of her, I mostly feel sadness for the relationship I know we would have had if she lived longer. She was beautiful, giving, and exactly the kind of woman I aspire to be. Happy Mother's Day, mama. I hope you're proud of me. xoxoxo

I love you more than all the stars in the sky.

2011-05-05T17:01:00.000-07:00

My friend Rachel, who I've posted about before, is making and selling the cooooooolest things ever. I want one.

It's a personalized view of the night sky from any location on any date. The one above is the view of the stars from the bed and breakfast she and her husband stayed at on their wedding night, May 24, 2008. I love the idea of commemorating something this way. I think it would be so sweet to have one for each of your kids the day they were born.

SO awesome, right? Go visit her Etsy shop!

Tidbits.

2011-05-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday in iPhone pictures.

Poking out from his fort. A view from a stroll along the water. Love buildings on stilts, reminds me of home. My ridiculously handsome lunch date. My ridiculously delicious shrimp tacos. Lunch view of the Coronado bridge. My poor car. Lack of motivation to make dinner. Fight night.

We were in a four car accident on the way home from lunch yesterday. We were rear-ended and pushed into the car in front of us. My poor car is damaged on both ends and I'm not happy about it, but I'm so grateful we are both okay. Wear your seatbelts! Ours saved our lives.

And it's here.

2011-04-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

So I just want to say thanks again for all the interest in the fingerprint art! And I'm sorry I made you guys wait so long for the tutorial. Right now Matt is making French toast for dinner so I can take a minute to get this bad boy up.

First off, I think the best way to take a fingerprint is with pencil and tape. So, rub some pencil on a piece of paper. Rub your finger in the graphite. Your fingertip should be fully covered with a thin coat of graphite.

Then you want to press tape to your finger to get the print. You want to do it lightly as you want the print to take to the tape just right and not smudge. You may have to press lightly around the edges of your fingertip in order to get a full print. Scotch tape worked great for me, but Matt has huge hands and fingers and we needed to use packing tape, so if you have one on hand and not the other, both should work just fine. Don't worry if the print doesn't look right, you can start over by rubbing your finger in the graphite again. It took me a few tries to get good, clear prints.

Then you're going to want to stick the tape to white paper and scan the print. Everyone's scanner and software is going to be a little different, but I'll show you how I did mine.

I scanned it, and selected the image:

Once the image was selected, I adjusted the size.

I wanted mine to be about 6x6 to fit into the 5x5 frames I had. So you'll need to adjust the size according to how large you want your image.

This is what it looks like enlarged:

Then, I upload to Picnik.com. I know Picnik gets a lot of flack as not being legit enough, but I don't have Photoshop and it certainly does the trick. If you know Photoshop, you can probably do this a million times better than I'm able to with Picnik.

Once in Picnik, I turn the sharpness all the way up to clean it up a little bit.

Then I up the contrast. If you up the contrast too much, it won't look right, so you'll need to find the right balance for your fingerprint.

Then, you save it and print it and it should look something like the one below. Make sure you print on cheap, flimsy computer paper. You'll see why in just a second.

Then I just traced the fingerprint with a Sharpie.

You're probably thinking that it doesn't look all that great. But if you flip the paper over, it looks much cleaner.

Yup, Sharpie bleeds right through cheap paper. To me it's perfect because it looks just like ink on paper.

And once you get the fingerprint all colored in and flip the paper over and put a frame around it, you'll get this:

When I started I was worried tracing the fingerprint would be really time consuming, but I finished both in less than an hour. No, it's definitely not perfect, but it beats all of the gorgeous yet ridiculously expensive (at $200+!!) custom fingerprint art on Etsy. I hope no one is disappointed with how ridiculously simple this is!! Please let me know if you have any questions about it!

Oh, and if you want your actual fingerprint and not the reverse (which I did for our original ones), you can reverse the image in the beginning so when you trace the fingerprint and flip it, it's facing the right way. Or you can scan the flipside after it's all traced and scan that, and flip the image.

Now I'm off to clean the house and watch the last episode of The Office with Steve Carell. Anyone else ridiculously sad about it?

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

2011-04-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

I'm SO sorry to keep you all waiting for the fingerprint art tutorial. I didn't post a tutorial in the first place because I honestly didn't think that many people would be interested, and although it's really simple, it takes quite a few steps, and I didn't want to spend time making a tutorial that no one would even use. So needless to say, I am totally overwhelmed by your sweet responses!

Matt goes back to work next week so our quality time will dwindle to basically nothing during the week. So I'll be spending tonight with a movie, discounted Easter candy, and these guys:

And I will do my best to get the tutorial up tomorrow after work. Thank you for understanding!

Tidbits.

2011-04-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

I didn't do a Tidbits post on Saturday because I was pretty stoked about finishing my fingerprint art and couldn't wait to share it. So I thought I'd do a weekend version.

So here is our weekend in iPhone pictures.

Love this fortune. Snuggly pup. A much needed Friday night treat. Reeeeediculous. A hint on how I made the fingerprints. Angels vs. Sox (Sox won, duh). Easter presents. Easter dinner = New Orleans style boil (that's crawfish). My awesome-but-not-so-Easter-appropriate mani.

I guess I should probably admit that I don't think fortune cookie fortunes are trivial.

ETA: I WILL post a tutorial for the fingerprints ASAP!

Fingerprint art.

2011-04-23T22:09:00.000-07:00

So anybody whose been reading my blog for awhile probably knows how much I love personalized and sentimental art (ie. here and here and here) around the house. I recently saw these stunning rings and knew I had to do something with our fingerprints.

And I pretty much LOVE what I came up with.

EDIT: TUTORIAL HERE!

I used our wedding ring fingers to make them a little more special and meaningful. Best part? Absolutely FREE. And the best surprise? My ring finger apparently has a teeny tiny M. My fingerprint is on the left. See it?

I can post a full tutorial to follow if anyone's interested!

Linking up here: Metamorphosis Monday, Today's Creative Blog, Craft-O-Maniac, Sugar Bee Crafts, HOH

Just some cuteness for your Thursday.

2011-04-21T06:50:00.000-07:00

Everything Is Illuminated.

2011-04-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

"I love you also means I love you more than anyone loves you, or has loved you, or will love you, and also, I love you in a way that no one loves you, or has loved you, or will love you, and also, I love you in a way that I love no one else, and never have loved anyone else, and never will love anyone else."

I wouldn't trade this for anything.

Iron Mountain.

2011-04-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning we drove out to Poway to hike Iron Mountain.

I loved the entry to the trail...

But I was pretty daunted when I caught my first glimpse of the trail itself...

It was definitely challenging but the views on the way up were gorgeous...

And the views from the top were DEFINITELY worth it.

And it was super rewarding to see just how far we had hiked. We knew it was six miles round trip, but this visual spoke for itself.

The arrow is pointing to the parking lot where we parked. And yes, that is the ocean on the horizon, which is 25 miles away from the mountain. Overall, it was pretty spectacular.

I feel like I've gotten more comments from local readers lately - so do any of you have any good hiking recommendations in San Diego county or southern Orange County!?

Better late than never.

2011-04-17T15:45:00.000-07:00

So I never really thought fabric wreaths were my thing. But I keep seeing super cute yarn and fabric wreaths all over the place. And I never thought I had a good spot to hang a wreath inside my house, but I have seen people hanging their wreaths from curtain rods, and I realized that duh, where I hung my shamrock bunting would be the perfect place for a wreath. So I picked up a wreath form and got to work with some supplies I had on hand to make a super simple Easter wreath.

This is what I came up with:

Ugh, venetian blinds, how I loathe you! I can't wait until we have our own home.

All I did was wrap the wreath in burlap using hot glue, and attach (also using hot glue) the little nest and eggs I had bought for another project but decided not to do. The buntings are actually made out of scrapbook paper I had on hand (since I didn't have Easter-appropriate fabric scraps) that I just strung with white embroidery floss and tied on the wreath. I'm super happy with it, except for the letters - I wish I bought some scrapbook stickers or even chipboard letters, but I was being cheap. Not bad for $3.50 though, right?

Now to finish the rest of my Easter decorating. I usually like to enjoy my holiday decorations for at least a couple weeks, but I've just been too busy. Better late than never I guess?

Linking up to Craftomaniac Monday and Sugar Bee Crafts!

Tidbits.

2011-04-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday in iPhone pictures.

Morning snuggles. A delicious discovery. A beautiful day. Our new TV obsession. The find of a lifetime. Homemade pinwheels for a special little man's first birthday. A San Clemente street at sunset. A demolished taco salad at dinner with friends. Late night Easter decorating.

Yesterday was a GORGEOUS day that I wish we would have spent at the beach, but responsibilities took priority. Have I mentioned how much I hate being an adult? But there are lots of fun weekends ahead. And now we're off for a hike.

Happy Sunday!

(P.S. - The new obsession is The Walking Dead. I can't believe I actually like a zombie TV show but it's seriously so good. Anyone else seen it?)

A night at the market.

2011-04-13T18:01:00.000-07:00

On Thursday nights we love to go to the Sunset Market in Oceanside. It's definitely not the greatest street market there ever was, but we have fun, there's tasty food, and the sunset is almost always gorgeous. We love to get barbecue or Philly cheese steak sandwiches. And I love to buy fresh flowers to brighten up the house for the week. When Matt's off cycle, I always look forward to our Thursday night dates. Do any of you have a weekly date?

Italian stuffed portobello mushrooms.

2011-04-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

There's a mushroom under there, I swear!

These are SO tasty. I am obsessed with them. Matt rarely ever lets me get away with cooking meatless meals but he's okay with this one. I would eat it every other night if I could, but I don't want to abuse the privilege. And they are really super easy, which is of course a plus!

What you need
2 large portobello mushroom caps
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta
1/2 cup finely chopped baby spinach
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
4 tbsp Kalamata olives
1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
1 cup pasta sauce

What to do
1. Preheat oven to 450 and spray baking sheet generously with cooking spray.
2. Place mushrooms gill side up on baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 20-25 minutes.
3. Add ricotta, half the Parmesan cheese, spinach, olives, Italian seasoning, and pepper to taste in a bowl and mix well. Heat pasta sauce on stove or in microwave.
4. When the mushrooms are done roasting, pour out any liquid in the caps. Return the mushrooms gill side up to the pan, and add 2 tbsp of sauce to each, and keep the rest of the sauce warm. Add half of the stuffing to each cap, and bake for another 10 minutes.
5. Serve with the rest of the pasta sauce on top and enjoy!

This is so good with a side salad and crusty garlic bread. YUM! Just typing this out makes me wanna eat it again!

At last.

2011-04-10T15:27:00.000-07:00

This morning I found this:

It's just some wrapping paper from Target but I thought it would be perfect inside the drawers.

To line them, I just cut a piece of paper just a little too large for the bottom of the drawer, cleaned out the drawer really well, and laid a thin layer of Mod Podge down, being careful not to get ANY on the sides (which I did and had to wipe off with a damp cloth). Then I fit the paper in, making sure the stripes were straight. Then I smoothed out as many bumps as I could with a credit card. This wrapping paper is pretty flimsy so they won't all come out, as you can probably see.

I let it dry, cut the excess off with an exacto knife, and laid another layer of Mod Podge over the top of the paper to seal it. It's a pretty cute combo, no?

And now my desk is finally complete.

Before:

After:

How do you like it!? Did I hype it up too much? I know it's a pretty simple desk but I love the change. I think it's fitting in nicely with my filing cabinet and dried Billy buttons. Unfortunately the rest of the room is still a disaster. I can't wait to get started on my next project for the room!

The great guest room makeover of 2011.

2011-04-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

This is what the spare room looked like yesterday:

I can't believe I just allowed the internet to see my house THAT messy. It gets really bad in there because I don't ever have to go in there unless I want to. So I just shut the door and pretend the mess doesn't exist. I'm sure Matt loves me for that since all of his clothes have been banished to the spare room because my clothes take up all of the master closet.

But now I really need that space to function as an office and a place to store all my craft stuff.. and it needs to function as a guest room when visitors are in town. And obviously I'd like it to look pretty. Right now it's a hodge podge of stuff from college and lots of other stuff I have no place for.

The desk (which WILL be posted right after this post) and the filing cabinet were the first of my projects for that room. This is the checklist I started with for the room:

~~Find a filing cabinet~~
~~Find (and refinish?) a new desk~~
Find a desk chair
Find or make a headboard
Repaint Hemnes bureau
Find a skinny/narrow bookshelf (probably this)
Find a desk chair
Find a nightstand
Find window treatments (I can't decide if I should go with a roman shade or drapes - what do you think?)
Find new bedding
Find a large mirror

So basically I have a really long way to go. But this is the only room in my house I get to start fresh with, so I'm excited! I'm just worried because we're not painting the room, and I don't do well with white walls. Any tips for camouflaging the fact that your walls are a less than attractive shade of white?

Tidbits.

2011-04-09T20:51:00.000-07:00

So I'm trying to get back to regular posting this week, starting with my Tidbits post - which is my favorite way to document our (usually less than eventful) Saturdays. So, here's our Saturday in iPhone pictures.

Breakfast at Beach Break Cafe (if you're local, try it).

Cruisin' down the 101 (name that TV show theme song!).

Baby seals at La Jolla Cove.

A cute passenger (see him?).

A cuter passenger.

A walk in Oceanside.

Followed by froyo.

And then boiled dinner (gag).

And finally popcorn and a movie.

I'm so grateful for all the quality time Matt and I have been able to spend lately. I hope everyone's enjoying their weekend!

Oh my word.

2011-04-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

Does a book that has a dog for a narrator and talks a LOT about racing cars sound good to you? Me neither. But if you are a dog lover, PLEASE go out and buy this book right now. I can't stop hugging and kissing my pup.

Has anyone read it? What did you think?

I swear I'm alive.

2011-04-06T19:02:00.000-07:00

So many of you are so, so sweet! I can't believe how many emails I have gotten from complete strangers asking if everything was okay due to my unexplained absence! It is truly awesome and makes my heart happy.

Truth be told I (embarrassingly) have no excuse for not posting, other than being busy combined with forgetting how nice it is to have Matt home at night when I get home. So I've really just wanted to snuggle and watch movies and just enjoy eating dinner together, which all equates to spending way less time on the computer. At least until he picks up another class. I now have tons of posts lined up but NOT my desk because I am ridiculously picky and want something perfect to line the drawers with and don't want to show it off till it's really done. I guess I'm bad at keeping posting promises? Lesson learned.

For now I'll leave you with a picture of what my night will most likely look like.

Aren't they the cutest? I couldn't ask for two better boys.

Sprinkles.

2011-03-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

We finally tried Sprinkles cupcakes at the La Jolla location. I'm dying to try the lemon but they weren't available. We got a chocolate peanut butter, cinnamon sugar, banana with vanilla frosting, red velvet, black and white, and vanilla milk chocolate. We haven't tried them all yet but all I can say is that they are NOT overrated.

Have you ever had Sprinkles? What is your favorite flavor?

Apologies times two.

2011-03-19T17:08:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry for this week again you guys, I've been busy doing a lot of this:

If you read my 26 Before 26 post, then you know I'm trying to make perfect sugar cookies. Are perfectly iced sugar cookies as elusive for anyone else as they are for me? But I am getting closer. I mean, at first, I could barely get the cookies to hold their shape when they baked. But can anyone tell me why I have so many air bubbles in my icing? Do I need to mix it longer once I add water to thin it for flooding the cookies? That's all I can think of but maybe I'm missing something.

As far as my desk goes - apparently the hardware was backordered when I ordered it, but it didn't tell me so. But I finally have a shipping confirmation and delivery date:

I'm posting this so you can all hold me accountable. If you haven't seen my desk by the end of next weekend please yell at me until I post it.

What are you up to this weekend?

Long Beach and Retro Row.

2011-03-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

So if you read my Tidbits post from yesterday, you know we went to Long Beach. A while back I heard about Retro Row in Long Beach. It's a street (4th Street is the real name) filled with vintage and thrift stores. Obviously, I needed to be there. If anyone lives nearby, these stores were my favorite:

Elan Collection which is actually off 4th Street on St. Louis.

The Vintage Collective

The Feed Store (awesome concept.)

but really all of the stores were faaaabulous and since I loved Long Beach so much I know we'll be back.

Some of you know I'm Italian and I craaaaaave Italian sandwiches and deli food like no other. It's really hard to find the kind of Italian food we're used to in Boston so whenever we go to a new city I always research beforehand to see if there's any good delis worth checking out. Well, I read about Angelo's Italian Deli and I knew we had to go. It was super cute, the owner was funny and super nice, and my Caprese sandwich was delicious. They put this signature garlic spread on everything and it's amazing.

Matt got the mega torpido (a classic Italian sub with double meat) and an itsy bitsy canoli. He had his first ever canoli in San Francisco and he's officially obsessed now.

I'm so lucky I get to stare at that handsome face all day.

But I have to say, I didn't expect Long Beach to be all that pretty. Probably because my only prior knowledge of Long Beach comes from Snoop Dogg. But it was beyond charming! We unfortunately didn't do that much walking around because we had to be back to see friends, but we drove around before we headed back and I just couldn't get over how gorgeous some of the homes were - I had to snap some pictures from the car.

That first house is the sweetest, most charming house and it's literally across the street from the beach - I love that unexpected factor! And I do love the Spanish style homes that are the majority here in San Diego, but it was so nice to see something different for a change.

So thank you Long Beach, for charming the pants off of us! We cannot wait to go back. If anyone is from the area and has any suggestions in on places to eat, shop, and/or stare at pretty houses, PLEASE share them!

(P.S. - If someone who owns one of these houses somehow stumbles across my blog and wants the picture of their house taken down, please let me know! It isn't my intention by any means to invade anyone's privacy!)

Tidbits.

2011-03-12T20:06:00.000-08:00

Saturday in iPhone pictures.

Angelo's Italian deli. A Long Beach beach street. A lovely entry. Vintage. A fairy tale tree. More vintage. Velvet Yogurt. Searching. Late night food craving.

We went to Long Beach today and it was beyond charming. More on that tomorrow.

Hope you're all enjoying your weekend!

Tortellini salad.

2011-03-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite thing in the world to make a big batch of and take to work for lunch. It's easy, cheap, and super tasty. And healthy in moderation. What's not to love?

I usually double this recipe (except the dressing)!

What you need
1 9 oz package cheese tortellini (or you could get creative with it and try different flavors!)
1 bottle fat free Italian (you won't need it all)
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1 package cherry tomatoes sliced in half
1 10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess water
1 2 oz can sliced black olives, drained
Salt and pepper to taste

What to do
1. Cook the tortellini till al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water.
2. Mix all the ingredients except Italian dressing until well combined.
3. Add just enough Italian dressing to coat.

Yup, 3 steps. Thank me later.

Fortunate.

2011-03-09T18:32:00.000-08:00

We ate Chinese food (yes, again) and we got these fortunes:

Honestly, I know fortune cookies are trivial, I've said it before, but how weird is it that we both got fortunes related to travel? It's totally a sign that we need to book all the trips we've been talking about. Therefore tonight I plan on spending a ridiculous amount of time on Tripadvisor.

Are you planning any trips this summer?

Cheddar white bean broccoli soup.

2011-03-08T17:34:00.000-08:00

I feel like spring recipes are starting to pop up. This is not a spring recipe. I just love making soup because it's so easy to scoop into portion size tupperwares and take them to work. And I know it's still pretty cold in most parts of the country so a soup recipe can still come in handy for some for you, right? Or are you sick of soup? Either way, try this soup now or wait till it gets cold again because it's delicious. The white beans make it sooo creamy without adding any cream. And it's pretty healthy for a cheesy soup, which is always a plus.

What you need
1 small onion
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
2 1/2 cups fat free chicken broth
1 cup skim milk
4 cups broccoli florets chopped
1 can white beans (Great Northern or Cannellini)
2 cups sharp cheddar
2 slices American cheese
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese

What to do
1. Chop onion, carrot, celery, and garlic into small pieces. Using a food processor is easiest.
2. Melt butter in large soup pot, add veggies, and saute on low heat.
3. Add flour, chicken broth, milk and beans. Cover and cook until beans are heated through.
4. Add broccoli and parmesan cheese and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the broccoli is cooked, about 5 minutes.
5. Add cheddar and American cheese and stir well.
6. If you have an immersion blender, blend the soup for a few seconds. If not, pour about half of the soup into your food processor or blender, and puree it. PLEASE be careful working with hot liquids. If you use a blender, blend it at the lowest speed possible and make sure you put a cloth over the lid and hold it down with your hand because otherwise the lid WILL blow off.
7. Then puree the other half of the soup. I don't puree the second half all the way because I like it to be a little chunky, so if you want the soup to be creamy, puree it all the way.

Enjoy!

Bunny love.

2011-03-07T17:17:00.000-08:00

I just have a quick post for you guys tonight. Remember my framed hearts inspired by Sarah and Bendrix? Well my friend Rachel put an absolutely adorable spin on it.

She's paying homage to her pet bunny, but how cute would this be for Easter? She used a Martha Stewart punch.

Rachel also paints absolutely gorgeous replica Disney animation cels.

How talented is she? Check out Rachel's work at her blog Wandering Free.

My apologies.

2011-03-06T16:32:00.000-08:00

You guys! I'm so sorry I left you hanging. This past week at work was insane. My job is so rewarding, but it's also completely exhausting at times. And that left me little time for cooking, cleaning, running, reading, spending time with Matt and Jack, hiking, and therefore just about everything else. But I spent the day yesterday deep cleaning the house, writing a menu for the week, and catching up on some R&R, and this morning we went for a long hike at Torrey Pines so I finally feel like I'm back into a routine with my job.

Anyway, my last post I said I would be revealing my desk and some St. Patrick's Day goodies. If you can't tell by our last name, Matt is Irish. And he's proud of it. So this year we are having everyone over for corned beef and cabbage (ugh) and green beer and naturally I needed some simple St. Patty's Day decor. So I made this simple little bunting with some burlap, jute, and green felt:

All I did was print off a shamrock , cut it out, use it as a stencil and I hot glued the shamrocks on. Then I just folded about a centimeter of fabric over the jute and used Stitch Witchery to attach the triangles.

Super easy, super cute. Do you agree?

Did you notice this awesome heart shaped succulent?

Simrin gave it to me for Valentine's Day and I think it's the sweetest!

And as far as my desk.... I finally decided on a paint color:

It's Vintage Teal from Valspar (obviously), and I think it looks much darker in real life, but that could just be my monitor.

But when I finished painting and put the hardware on (I ended up picking card catalog type label holder pulls), it didn't look anything like I was picturing in my head and I just wasn't satisfied. So I ordered some new pulls and I'm dying for them to get here so I can FINALLY reveal my desk!

And I have one more thing to share. My friend Nikki suggested making a Hootie and the Blowfish channel on Pandora. I mean I like Hootie and the Blowfish but really? Well please do yourself a favor and do the same. Lots of 90's awesomeness will be coming from your speakers and you will not be sorry! You can thank me later :)

Tidbits.

2011-02-26T20:55:00.000-08:00

Saturday in iPhone pictures.

Sweet gesture. Nap in the sun. So studious. New obsession. Fueled my nail polish obsession. And my Scentsy obsession. Went to dinner (with the most handsome man alive). But came home to watch a movie... and eat Thin Mint ice cream.

Happy Saturday.

(Seriously if you guys have never played Unblock Me and have an iPhone, do yourself a favor and download it!)

Blog love.

2011-02-24T19:45:00.000-08:00

You guys - I am SO excited. Tomorrow (Friday) our Silverware Silhouettes are going to be featured on one of my most favorite blogs, Knock Off Decor! If you guys don't already know about it, you NEED to go check it out. Pronto.

Thank you so much Beckie for featuring our project!

And for anyone who popped over here from Knock Off Decor, House of Hepworths, or Tip Junkie, welcome!! We are so thrilled to have you here! I just started a new job so things have been slow on the decorating front, but this weekend I'll have a desk and some St. Patrick's Day goodies to share with you so I hope you'll stick around!

Why slamming doors is never a good idea.

2011-02-21T17:50:00.000-08:00

When I get mad I like to slam doors. I'll admit it. But today I learned my lesson because the gorgeous vintage frame I had next to the door fell off the wall and broke. Maybe this should be a lesson in secure picture frame hanging instead. But either way, I'm pretty bummed.

It was a really awkward oblong shape and I found it at a thrift store and all it came with was the frame and the glass. There was no back. As soon as I saw it I knew that I wanted it to be a chalkboard frame. I just painted the wall directly behind the frame with chalkboard paint and hung the frame without the glass on the wall.

Well when the frame fell off this is what I had (after I washed it off):

And I was totally inspired by the frame in this picture from Rue:

But I learned that it is nearly impossible to draw that much detail with plain old chalk, especially on the textured walls in our base housing.

So this is what it looks like now:

I had to draw something on it because I could NOT stare at the seemingly random black square in the middle of the wall every time I came in or left the house. But I don't like it like this at all.

It will be nearly impossible to ever find a frame that specific size again, so I suppose I could just find a new frame and repaint green where the frame doesn't cover. Or cover it up with something else. Or get a chalk pen and try to draw a detailed frame like the inspiration photo. I'd build a frame myself but I don't want just a plain old frame around it, I want something with more character. I'm so bummed about this. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Tidbits.

2011-02-19T21:53:00.000-08:00

Saturday in iPhone pictures.

Early morning naps. Taco dip for a baby shower. Kisses while cruising. The best new candy. Another complete set, finally. New scarves. What we watched all day. The creepiest magazine addressed to me that had us laughing for a good hour. Evening snuggles.

We spent the majority of the day lying on the couch with the windows open relaxing and napping to the sound of the rain. Sometimes there's nothing better than an insignificant Saturday.

Can we please discuss what just came in the mail?

2011-02-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

This past Valentine's Day was the first Valentine's Day me and Matt have spent together in four years thanks to training and deployments. Rather than worrying about gifts, we decided our fancy dinner date would just be our gift to each other. After all, as cheesy as it sounds, we were happy just to be together (and we love food, duh).

Well I got home today and found a package on my doorstep. I was kind of mad at first because I knew it was a gift, but then I opened it, and found THIS:

I'm sure 99.9% of you can't identify this band by the picture, but this is a special edition double LP of City and Colour's album Bring Me Your Love. If we had to pick one album to be the soundtrack to our lives, this would be it. And this is the band we snagged tickets to see next month to celebrate my new job.

The fun part about this is that I don't have a record player. I have wanted a record player for a really, REALLY long time. So getting this record leads me to believe that a) there is a record player hiding somewhere in my house right now or b) Matt has a plan to take me shopping for one. I can't reach him right now because he's busy with his students at work, but I cannot wait till he walks in the door tonight to find out his plan (but not before laying a big juicy wet one on him)!! Andddd I can't wait to make over a perfect little table to rest this bad larry on!

Assuming Matt didn't go out and buy a record player without my input - does anyone have record player recommendations?

Aren't husbands just the best!?

Prosperous.

2011-02-16T20:32:00.000-08:00

Eek! I am so so excited about all my new followers from today's feature on Welcome Wednesday! I am so beyond thrilled to have all of you here! But I'm also embarrassed because my blog is a mess - half my links don't work and the post I planned to welcome you all over here with... well, I just didn't have time to complete the project!

I started a new job last week working on the mental health staff at a school for children with mental, emotional, and behavioral problems. I am absolutely in LOVE with my job - the students, my co-workers, the program itself and everything it offers, and especially the feeling of self-worth I leave work with every day. Buuuuuuut, needless to say, the job comes with LOTS of challenges and I'm still adjusting... and by adjusting I mean coming home every day after work and crashing on the couch for a few hours like a zombie so I don't internalize the stresses of the day. I haven't even been really cooking lately, which is why you haven't seen any recipes either. Today I spent the day in training instead of with my class, and I thought I would be able to come home stress-free and get some cleaning and crafting done. But today was just doubly stressful trying to participate in training and trying NOT to worry about my students. Anyway, I hope you all understand and I promise I'll have some great things to share with you this weekend!

I did want to post a little personal post though. We celebrated Valentine's Day on Saturday, but on Monday night we got Chinese food (yeah, that's Chinese food twice in three days - clearly we're off track on our diets!) and snuggled on the couch. I got this fortune in a fortune cookie:

Sure fortune cookies are trivial little things (although we do save all of ours), but no fortune cookie fortune has ever rung so true. And I don't mean financially prosperous - I mean flourishing as an individual in a career that I love, putting my creativity to use and getting to share it here, making new friends through this blog, and just growing as a person in general. Life has been so good to me lately and I feel so blessed.

So I just want to reiterate how thrilled I am to have all of you new readers here! I promise to get my projects done this weekend and not make excuses ;) Now I'm off to do my nails, eat Cadbury eggs (I was so excited when I saw the Easter candy in the store!), and watch Modern Family!

Silverware silhouettes.

2011-02-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

Pottery Barn had these metal silverware silhouettes a while ago. Some of you might remember them? I've never stopped thinking about them - I'm a sucker for kitchen related art. When I realized we needed something to decorate the wall opposite our hutch, I knew I had to try and recreate these on the cheap.

We went to Lowe's and picked up an $8 piece of 1/4" thick 4x8 birch plywood. We had them cut it into four 1x2 boards.

I sketched out a fork, spoon, and knife on plain paper. Using some carbon paper Matt snagged from work, I transferred them onto the boards. If you don't have carbon paper, you could cut out the shapes and trace them like a stencil, or scribble with a pencil on the back of the sketch to make some makeshift carbon paper. Either way should work great!

We don't have a jigsaw, but we do have a multisaw attachment for the Dremel, so that's what we used. Matt cut out the shapes of the silverware, and then used a sanding attachment to smooth the edges. I also sanded by hand around the edges of the cut out and the edges of the board for a smooth finish.

I knew I wanted the silhouettes to be black, but I didn't want them to have even a hint of shine. I had some chalkboard paint on hand from another project, so I used that. I love the matte almost metallic finish. It only took one coat and some touch ups.

And the finished product:

Don't mind how off the fork looks in the last picture - the patio door is right next to the table and is casting a weird shadow in the picture.

What do you think!? Not bad for $8 buckaroos right!?

I'm linking up to The DIY Showoff, Craftomaniac, C.R.A.F.T., Dittle Dattle, Metamorphosis Monday, Hope Studios, and Saavy Southern Style, and The Shabby Nest!

We went back to the ranch.

2011-02-13T14:05:00.000-08:00

I knew we wouldn't be able to wait more than a week to go back to Daley Ranch. There's just toooo much awesomeness to explore.

This time we hiked the Jack Creek Meadow Loop and our trail looked more like this:

The views weren't so scenic but we made some discoveries along the way:

Awesome right?

Since this morning I've been working on a project that I can't wait to share with you later! But first, some of our friends are from New Orleans and they're having a seafood boil and I'm super excited to eat what I expect to be some dee-licious shrimp! But I'm also equally excited to get home and veg on the couch for a couple hours before bed. What can I say? I'm an old soul.

P.S. What do you think of my new layout? Have any suggestions for me?

I hope everyone is having a lovely Sunday!

Tidbits.

2011-02-12T22:51:00.000-08:00

Saturday in iPhone pictures.

Good morning puppylove. Getting lost in Lowe's. Girl Scout cookies FINALLY. Devoured Chinese food. His favorite hiding spot. A project. A fancy V-Day dinner. Post-dinner flowers. Ice cream on the couch.

Yup, we consumed way too many calories today.

Avocado pasta.

2011-02-12T07:36:00.000-08:00

My guess is that this probably sounds either REALLY good or REALLY gross to you. Avocado seems to be one of those things that people either love or hate. I found this recipe at Oh She Glows and I had to try it. Immediately. And I suggest you do too if you're an avocado lover. It's a super refreshing twist on pasta!

What you need:
1 ripe avocado
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2-3 garlic cloves (use less if you're not a garlic lover)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup fresh basil
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 oz pasta of your choice
fresh ground black pepper

What to do:
1. Boil water and add pasta. Cook 8-10 minutes.
2. Make the sauce by placing garlic cloves, lemon juice, and olive oil in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the avocado, basil, and salt, and process again until smooth.
3. Drain the pasta and place in a large bowl. Pour on sauce and mix until combined. Add lemon zest and black pepper on top. Serve immediately as this will not reheat well.

Let me know if you try it!

26 Before 26: Goal Completion #1.

2011-02-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

I have so many new followers - hi everyone! I am so thrilled that you want to follow our little blog! I know most of you follow to see my DIY and decor posts or recipe posts, but I also use this as our personal blog and to share with our friends and family across the country so I hope you'll stick around when I do personal posts!

I set some goals for myself a couple months ago - some things I wanted to complete before I turn 26. One of them was to find a job I love. Of all my goals, this was the one I was most afraid of not achieving. But I already did. And I am in complete and utter shock.

I got my undergrad degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences with every intention of going to grad school for Social Work. But I could. not. find. an entry level job that didn't require me to be bilingual (thank you California!). So I took an office job in November. I wasn't happy AT ALL. I cried after work most days because I felt like I was stuck and would never be able to find the kind of job I wanted and therefore would never have a REAL career. And I feared that having no experience would prevent me from getting into grad school.

The last week of January, a position opened up at a school nearby for children with mental, emotional, and behavioral problems. I applied thinking I would NEVER get the job, but if I did, I could quit the job I had. My first interview was on a Friday, and by that Friday, I had also decided that I needed to put in my two weeks notice and if I didn't get this job, I would take the pay cut, live on a tight budget for a few months, and do extensive volunteer work to get some legitimate experience under my belt. So I gave my two weeks notice and went to my first interview, which went really REALLY well. My second interview went even better. But I knew the other candidates had experience and I did not. Yet somehow, I got the job.

I feel like taking that leap of faith was exactly what I needed to do and that now I am exactly where I'm supposed to be. I've already had huge successes at work and I love love love the kids. I didn't even think about getting paid until my boss gave me my time card to fill out, and I would honestly go to this job every single day even if I didn't get paid. This is not to say the job doesn't come with many, MANY challenges. But I am so looking forward to Monday and I've NEVER had that feeling before. I am beyond thrilled (and totally surprised) I'm able to cross this goal off the list!

Etsy love.

2011-02-10T17:18:00.001-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple days! I started a new job and my schedule has been pretty hectic. I'm so behind on everything I wanted to post this week. But I got a few packages from Etsy sellers and I really wanted to share these awesome shops with you guys! This is some of the best money I ever spent. And let me apologize in advance for the poor quality pictures - I don't have good lighting in my house AT ALL. And getting home at 4:30 doesn't make getting good shots any easier!

I just love this print. I've had it in my favorites for a long time. Even though the saying is so simple, the typography and the colors make it super cheery. It's in my dining room hutch and I love it seeing it in there. Please do yourself and favor and check out Farouche.

I have had my eye on these prints FOREVER. I grew up in New England, so I miss the four seasons dearly. I don't think there's a better way to bring the four seasons to California than with these gorgeous tree prints. Check out erinjaneshop - this picture does NOT do the prints justice. And she has tons of other gorgeous and inspirational prints!

Seriously? Like SERIOUSLY? I got this and tears welled up in my eyes. This is the original picture.

The picture is a little overexposed and somehow she knew how to change it to look even more like Jack, without ever meeting him. If you have a pet you absolutely love and want a super fun portrait of, check out Smithacus. I will cherish this little canvas of my puppylove forever.

Seriously is there anyone out there that doesn't LOVE Etsy? Please share - what's your favorite Etsy shop or Etsy purchase?

A filing cabinet beautified.

2011-02-07T11:25:00.000-08:00

I'm super excited to share this with you guys today!

We've needed a bigger filing cabinet for a while. I saw this one on craigslist and snagged it for $30 buckaroos. I was pretty stoked because I looked it up and it retails for $199 at Staples - pretty awesome deal right?

Well it's definitely functional, but not so aesthetically pleasing. So I took care of that with some wallpaper and a little Modge Podge!

I wanted to take pictures of my process but I needed two hands for most of it and Matt wasn't home while I worked on it. So I'll do my best to write out the steps I took in case any of you want to try it yourselves!

First, I took all the hardware off (duh). I'd give more details instructions but it will differ depending on how your filing cabinet is built. Then I measured the drawers and cut pieces of wallpaper about 1 inch larger than the drawer all the way around. I put Modge Podge right on the drawer with a foam brush and stuck the paper on using a credit card to smooth it and get rid of any bubbles. Once it dried, I used an exacto knife to cut off the excess. I just held the knife right up against the side of the drawer and slid it right down (or across for the top and bottom) and the edge was almost perfect. I thought this was easier than trying to cut a piece to the perfect size and center it perfectly, etc etc.

There's only one spot on the bottom right of the bottom drawer where it tugged a little resulting in an uneven edge, but this pattern is pretty forgiving so I'm okay with it! If your drawers can actually come out (mine don't), I would recommend laying them face down once they're dry and cutting the excess from behind. It's safer and will probably come out cleaner!

Then I just added another coat of Modge Podge and let it dry before adding on the new hardware. The absolutely gorgeous wallpaper was a FREE SAMPLE! I knew you could get free 4x6 wallpaper samples from big box stores, but I never knew higher end wallpaper distributors would send you LARGE samples for free or just the cost of shipping. It's a pretty awesome resource to know about! (And for those of you asking, the patterns in the Saturday Tidbits post were free wallpaper samples as well!) The new cup pulls cost a total of $8 at Home Depot and I had the Modge Podge on hand so this whole project cost me a whopping $38 bucks.

It's one of my favorite projects yet. I'd love to hear what you think!

Tomorrow I'll show you where this bad boy and my new desk are going to go!

I linked up to the Shabby Nest, Funky Junk Interiors and Chic on a Shoestring Budget!

10 things we love about Sunday.

2011-02-06T19:27:00.000-08:00

1. Hikes
2. Snuggle time
3. Trashy reality TV marathons
4. Long showers
5. Long naps
6. Long uninterrupted conversations
7. More snuggle time
8. Calls from a certain 3 year old in Massachusetts
9. Endless kisses
10. Early bedtime

Nighty night!

P.S. This particular Sunday was especially nice because of a beautified filing cabinet and a delicious avocado pasta - I'll be sharing both tomorrow!

Tidbits.

2011-02-05T23:36:00.000-08:00

Saturday in iPhone pictures.

Snuggle time. Gold sparkly nails. A project. An exciting delivery. More snuggle time. Photobooth fun. Chocolate chip cookies. Boyfriend. Cherry limeade.

A perfect Saturday.

Just 'cause I love 'em.

2011-02-04T22:20:00.000-08:00

Dear Husband,
I am so happy it's the weekend.
I can't wait to laugh for two straight days with you.
I'm not even mad you didn't stop playing Call of Duty when I came home from babysitting.
Or that you're now asleep.
I'm just glad I'll be able to curl up next to you because there is a risk of frostbite to my extremities whenever you have to stay at work no matter how high I turn up the heat.
No, this isn't me trying to remind you how much I miss Hawaii.
I just think you provide the perfect amount of body heat.

Dear Jack,
Thank you for always enthusiastically greeting me at the door even when I don't give you enough love and attention. And when I forget to walk you. Or feed you.

Dear iPhone,
Thank you for making this picture possible and for staying loyal even though I have dropped you several thousand times which has resulted in severe injury to your face. You da bomb.

Chicken Tostadas

2011-02-03T07:22:00.000-08:00

These were sooooo deliciously good. And easy. And they're low-cal too.

What you need:
3 cups shredded chicken
1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes with chiles
1 medium onion diced
1 avocado
1/4 cup salsa
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tbsp fresh cilantro chopped
1 cup shredded lettuce
1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese (which we left out to save even more calories)
8 tostada shells or 8 corn tortillas*

*It's healthier to make your own tostada shells. Coat both sides with cooking spray and put on a cookie sheet in the oven at 375 for 10 minutes, turning once during cooking to brown both sides.

What to do:
1. Bring tomatoes to a boil over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 15ish minutes until the onions are soft. Add chicken and heat through, 1 to 2 minutes.
2. Mash avocado in a bowl. Stir in cilantro, salsa, and sour cream.
3. To assemble the tostadas, spread each crisped tortilla with some of the avocado mixture. Top with lettuce, chicken mixture, and cheese.

Enjoy!

Resolutions.

2011-02-02T18:39:00.000-08:00

I'm a month late in posting these. Oops. I know lots of people think resolutions are dumb. But I think the New Year brings such an overwhelming feeling of a fresh start it's easy for me to start fresh with new habits too. I'm happy to say I've stuck to all of my resolutions so far. I have my 26 Before 26 goals to work on, so my resolutions are just a few small changes I want to make. I keep them framed on my nightstand so I see them every morning and every night to remind myself.

Here they are:

1. Drink more water. Self-explanatory.

2. Give up Diet Coke. Forever. And I'm happy to say I haven't had my beloved DC at all this year! I haven't even craved it. Well, okay, maybe once or twice. But I had no desire to actually drink it. I've surprised myself for sure.

3. Be more green. I have never recycled unless it would somehow benefit me. Like we save all our bottles and cans and cash them in. But I never recycle paper or aluminum cans or plastic from the house. And I still use plastic grocery bags. I set up a little recycling station. It's nothing fancy since they don't require us to separate things really besides plastic, metal, and glass from paper, but it's something. And it was actually free. And this is embarrassing to admit, but these were all left at my house when we moved in. So I was really just THAT lazy that I didn't bother to use them.

Also, every time we go to the commissary we have been purchasing a few reusable grocery bags at a time. Hopefully I'll have a big enough stash soon! There's lots of other things I'd like to do but I'm starting small for now.

4. Finish this house. I don't think a house can ever be "done," since I think your house will always change and evolve with you, but decorating this house literally consumes my mind! I obsess about it! I'm a freak! We don't own this place (we live in base housing) so I can only do so much. But I just want to get it to a point I'm happy with so I'm not sitting on the couch staring at everything I want to change. And I want to document it all right here!

5. Stay up to date with current events. I think it's really important to stay informed about what's going on in the world around you. And I usually don't, I usually lead my little life of oblivion unless something pops up on Facebook or someone brings something to my attention. Sad right? So basically I'm just aiming to read the top headlines every day.

6. Be more grateful. Sometimes - okay, a lot of the time - I just need to focus on how fortunate I am and not what I don't have, don't like, wish was different, etc.

I'm sure everyone is sick of reading about resolutions and no one cares about mine but I wanted to post to keep myself accountable! How are your New Years' Resolutions coming? I can't believe I've kept mine into February!

I guess I like sentimental art.

2011-02-02T14:29:00.000-08:00

So I've been looking for a piece of art to put above the back of my stove for a while. I know most people just put like spices and such up there, but I'm at the stove a lot so just like my gallery wall, I wanted something pretty to look at. I haven't found anything I've loved that was the right proportions for the spot - until I saw this post on Pure and Lovely and was totally inspired. I love the meaningful way she separated the words, but as for font, I wanted something a little sweeter.

So I nervously attempted to make my version of it. This is my result:

I used cradle board and acrylic paint. The font is "Lobster" from Google font preview which I traced and transferred onto the cradle board. I just free-handed the flowers. I also sprayed them with polyacrylic spray to protect them from all the food and yucky-ness that goes on around the stove. What do you think? I wish I had made the flower on the right hand side lower, but oh well. This is the first time I've ever attempted something like this, so you live and learn!

I've also been working on this desk. $40 from Craigslist and it's exactly what I'm looking for - antique but not too ornate or bulky because I'm going BOLD with it. Can't wait to share the final result!

Daley Ranch.

2011-02-01T12:50:00.000-08:00

I feel like I've said this a bunch of times, but this might be our favorite hike ever. That's saying a lot for us, since these are the views we're used to:

But we went to Daley Ranch on Sunday, and it was totally hidden away in the most unexpected place. And it was beautiful! I totally felt like we were somewhere else entirely. We started on the Farm House Trail which is really easy and pleasant. There's a historic ranch house and little ponds and creeks and it's so peaceful.

Then we decided to hike Boulder Loop for a workout. That trail is no joke! I don't know if I wasn't prepared for it or what, but it kicked my butt!

This is why it's called Boulder Loop.

So maybe the view from the top isn't quite as dramatic as our Hawaii hikes, but it's still gorgeous nonetheless.

We liked it so much, we took the trail map and we plan on hiking all the trails and highlighting and dating what we've completed so far... and we plan to complete them all! If you're local, we definitely recommend this hike too. We already have a hiking spot picked out for this weekend but I can't wait to go back!

Also for the wall.

2011-01-31T15:29:00.000-08:00

I had to get my little guy up on the wall somehow!

This was super easy. Well actually, getting the perfect side shot was nearly impossible. But once I got it, it took less than 10 minutes to do the rest. I just printed the picture off, carefully cut out his head and neck, and traced it on black paper. Since his ears don't really stick up, I wanted to define his ear, so I just cut a little slit where the edge of his ear rests against his head. Somehow he's cute even as a silhouette!

The luckiest.

2011-01-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday to the boy I've loved since I was 13. I am so blessed, happy, grateful, and proud to be your wife. I can't wait for a whole lifetime of adventures. xo

A meaningful alternative to photos.

2011-01-28T14:04:00.000-08:00

Since we moved in I wanted a collage wall in this particular spot in our dining room. It's the spot that I see whenever I'm cooking or doing dishes. I just wanted to hang things there that I love. But not photos. At least not all photos. So I've been working on a couple things to put there.

This is what it looks like right now:

The Massachusetts cutting board is from A Heirloom. You all know how much I love my home state. My favorite part is that they even include Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. And the key is the key to our first home in Hawaii.

This is my version of what SarahandBendrix does. Not nearly as neat or perfect as hers, but it does the trick. If you're wondering, I used a heart shaped paper puncher and a good ol' gluestick. The 6th heart and 17th heart are yellow because we started dating on June 17 (6/17).

And this is a letter Matt sent to me from Iraq during his first deployment. No, that's not my address anymore, just an old college address. Ever since I got it I wanted to frame it. I wanted to get it custom framed but instead I just bought one of those frames for $1 bills that businesses sometimes hang up, and used that instead. It was the perfect proportions. I just placed the envelope on a gray piece of cardstock and placed that over the mat. Anyone with a loved one overseas knows how sentimental these letters can be. Whenever I look at it I always picture him in his tent doodling away at this envelope for me.

What do you think so far? I know exactly what's going in all the empty spaces, and I can't wait to share the finished product!

Spaghetti squash and turkey meatballs.

2011-01-28T08:16:00.000-08:00

I have an obsession with spaghetti squash. For some reason it never looks appetizing in pictures though, ha!

I'm not usually a big fan of replacing beef with turkey but these meatballs were surprisingly tasty!

What you need:

1 spaghetti squash halved lengthwise and seeds removed
1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 can (28 ounces each) crushed tomatoes with basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan-Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 pound ground turkey
1 large egg
1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

What to do:

1. Steam spaghetti squash in the microwave for 15-20 minutes and set aside to cool.
2. Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute.
3. Add the tomato paste and cook another minute or so.
4. Stir in tomatoes and oregano, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer. Stir occasionally.
5. Stir together the breadcrumbs, parmesan, parsley, and garlic. When well combined, add milk and stir until incorporated. Add turkey, egg, salt and pepper and mix with your hands until well combined.
6. Form the mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls.
7. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and cook meatballs until they're evenly browned on all sides.
8. Transfer meatballs to sauce and simmer until cooked through.
9. Scrape each half of the squash into a large bowl and combine with the sauce and meatballs. Enjoy!!

Modern day mixtape.

2011-01-27T20:04:00.000-08:00

Sooo last month I never got around to doing something sweet for Matt as part of my 26 Before 26. I mean it was Christmastime, so I baked him lots of goodies and bought him gifts and we did lots of special things together. But I don't feel like I really went out of my way to do something I wouldn't have done otherwise.

So this month I had to do two things. The first thing I did is make him a playlist - when he was on duty I snuck on his computer and made it on iTunes. It sounds silly but we have been together for almost TEN YEARS. Isn't that weird? So I thought it was about time I made him a little playlist to remind him of special times.

Wanna know what's on it? A lot of this music is EMBARRASSING.

Al Green - Let's Stay Together
Anthony Green - She Loves Me So
Armor For Sleep - Phantoms Now
Band of Horses - The First Song <3
Bon Iver - Skinny Love <3
Bruno Mars - Grenade
City and Colour - The Girl <3
Copeland - Love is a Fast Song <3
Cursive - Sierra
Dave Matthews Band - You & Me
David Gray - This Year's Love
Dear and the Headlights - I Just Do
Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
Devendra Banhart - Chinese Children
The Doors - Love Me Two Times
The Early November - Make it Happen
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Home <3
Emery - The Ponytail Parades
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Soundtrack - Strings That Tie to You
Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal <3
Gladys Knight & the Pips - Midnight Train to Georgia
Good Old War - Stay By My Side <3
Great Lake Swimmers - The Chorus in the Underground <3
The Honorary Title - Everything I Once Had
Horse Feathers - Blood on the Snow <3
The Maccabees - Toothpaste Kisses
Mates of State - Proofs
Mew - Beach
Michael Cera and Ellen Page - Anyone Else But You
Minus the Bear - Pachuca Sunrise
Mumford & Sons - White Blank Page <3
Name Taken - Drive, Drive, Drive
Outkast - Hey Ya
Page France - Ribs
Pinback - Bloods on Fire
The Postal Service - Brand New Colony
Rick Ross - I'm a G
Right Away, Great Captain! - Love Come Save Me
Rufio - One Slow Dance
Ryan Bingham - Depression
Semisonic - Secret Smile
The Shins - Young Pilgrims
The Startling Line - The Best of Me
The Stryder - Intoxicated
Tom Petty - American Girl
Van McCoy - The Hustle
Yellowcard - Miles Apart

Clearly we were brooding teenagers. It was fun to watch his face light up as he looked at all the songs, since most of these I picked not because they're favorite songs of ours, but because I can pinpoint them to an exact moment or memory and I knew he would be able to too. Not all of them are lovey songs - hello "I'm a G" by Rick Ross! - but they're meaningful to us. If anyone's looking for new music I put a heart next to some of my favorite lesser known bands!

Garlicky lemon shrimp and veggies.

2011-01-27T09:59:00.000-08:00

This is the best healthy shrimp recipe I've ever made. It somehow tasted buttery and delicious even though there's no butter at all in the recipe. So good!

4 tsp EVOO
2 red bell peppers, diced
1 lb asparagus cut into small pieces
2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb raw shrimp
1 cup chicken broth
1 tsp cornstarch
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1. Heat 2 tsp oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell peppers, asparagus, lemon zest, and 1/4 tsp salt and cook until veggies soften. Transfer the veggies to a bowl and cover to keep warm.
2. Add the remaining 2 tsp of oil and garlic to the skillet and cook for about 30 seconds. Add shrimp and cook for about a minute.
3. Whisk broth and cornstarch in a small bowl until smooth and add to the pan with 1/4 tsp salt.
4. Cook, stirring, until the sauce has thickened and shrimp are cooked through.
5. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and parsley.
6. Mix the shrimp and veggies and serve!

The beast.

2011-01-26T19:02:00.000-08:00

We have this huge entertainment center. I really hate it. I never wanted it. I like to call it the beast. Matt wanted it because the wall we kept the TV on in Hawaii was huge and we couldn't figure out a logical way to fill it besides with a big piece of furniture. I would have rather just had the wall be kind of empty. I kind of think entertainment centers are a guy thing anyway.

It gets SO dusty! I literally dusted this thing three days ago. Another thing I totally hate about it.

Since we've had it I've just thrown random objects on it like pictures and candles to fill it up because I could never find stuff I really liked to style it up. And since we've moved here, I felt like it was just a big eyesore. Well since one of my resolutions is to get this house as close to finished as possible (I swear I'm gonna do a resolutions post before this month is up), I realized I needed to find a way to decorate it with things I actually like.

Well I've been obsessed with this photo ever since I saw it on Little Green Notebook. I love how she accessorized this bureau she uses as a console and I wanted to apply it to my entertainment center.

I'm mostly obsessed with those two boxes. So instead of going out and looking for something similar, I decided to just try and make something similar.

The gold box was easy. I just painted one of those cheapo cardboard boxes found at any craft store with gold metallic paint. I love how bright hers is but I have a lot of yellow in my living room and I didn't want it to be too matchy. The patterned box was a little trickier. I bought this box and painted it black.

Then I made a pattern on the computer and cut it out of cardboard. Then I used a foam roller to paint the pattern onto the box. I used antique white and the foam roller rather than bright white and spray paint because I didn't want to try to make it totally perfect because then I knew any imperfections (because duh, there would be some) would be super obvious.

And I painted the inside a turquoise color as a nod to Little Green Notebook.

It's far from perfect (in retrospect it probably would have been better to paint the box white and cut out the outlines of the shapes, but hindsight is 20/20!). But I think it looks pretty cute on the shelf.

I picked the plant and planter up from Ikea a couple weeks ago and the glass jar is just from Michael's and it has all our fortune cookie fortunes we've saved from the past couple years. The whole shelf cost less than $20. What do you think? One shelf down, 6 to go!

Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve.

2011-01-25T19:35:00.001-08:00

This past Sunday we got up early and headed to Escondido for a hike at Elfin Forest Recreational Reserve.

Pretty brook at the entrance.

Pretty hills and valleys.

We did The Way Up Trail and it's definitely UP! I don't know why you can't tell very well in pictures but the whole way up was a steep incline.

It took us almost 3 hours round trip but it was an amazing workout and there were super pretty views of Harmony Grove and the reservoir at the top.

We totally recommend this one! It's a hidden gem for sure!

Turkey and balsamic onion quesadillas.

2011-01-24T20:31:00.000-08:00

I've been cooking less lately because we were trying to use up random stuff we had in the pantry and fridge. So for the past week or so, dinner has consisted of random things like tuna pita pockets and random bowls of rice, beans, and veggies. But somehow these quesadillas came about. If you like balsamic caramelized onions you will looooove these.

They are super simple and surprisingly filling. I just caramelized some red onion in balsamic vinegar, and made a quesadilla with two slices of deli turkey, one slice of colby jack broken up into pieces, and some of the onions. Instead of using two tortillas, I just used one and folded it in half. Served it with some spinach and it was the yummiest dinner!

You guys must be sick of hearing about my books.

2011-01-21T23:15:00.000-08:00

But my heart skipped a couple beats when I got on Amazon and saw the next 3 books are ready for pre-order.

Call me crazy but I LOVE A Tale of Two Cities and I LOVE the cover. Can't wait to get my hands on these!

Torrey Pines.

2011-01-21T17:23:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday we went to Torrey Pines for some hiking.

The trails are pretty.

The views are pretty.

The trees are pretty.

The beach is pretty.

And it smells like pine. The trails are all fairly short and easy so if you are going for a workout, make sure you park along the street (or way across from the beach entrance like we did) and walk up the road rather than driving to the top where the trails start. That first hill is killer! We could have easily fit more than one trail in our morning (we did the Guy Fleming Trail) after hiking up the big hill, but we decided we'll do them one at a time so we can keep coming back for a new hike each time. It's a new favorite hiking spot!

Old Town.

2011-01-20T21:45:00.001-08:00

Saturday we also went to Old Town. I wanted Mexican food and there was a place there I wanted to try (Coyote Cafe is totally overrated by the way). Have I mentioned how much I love Old Town? I guess I have a thing for tourist traps... but really there's a lot of history and culture if you look around.

Pretty bowls and tiles:

Casa de Estudillo:

Kitschy buildings:

A pretty church:

Dancers in the Casa de Reyes:

How can you not love it?

23.

2011-01-19T21:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday! I can't believe I'm 23. I feel like 23 is a real age, an adult age, so I have mixed feelings about it because I don't know if where I thought I would be now. But just like a new year, a new age brings lots of promise and potential. So of course I'm excited to see what 23 holds.

Matt and I actually had a sweet little celebration Saturday because he picked up a new class of students yesterday and knew he'd be working super late. Excuse my creepy red eye correction and then red eye in the next picture - I get the WORST red eye!

Matt bought me a Le Creuset dutch oven which I've been wanting forever.

And he also bought me three cookbooks:

I didn't have the classic Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and he knew I wanted one. And The Silver Spoon is seriously like the bible of Italian cooking - it's almost 1300 pages! And of course he threw in a Jamie Oliver cookbook I don't have. I cannot wait to get cooking!

Table runner numero dos.

2011-01-18T19:49:00.000-08:00

One of my New Year's Resolutions (which I am going to make a post about 3 weeks late) is to get this house FINISHED. I feel like a house can never really be finished, but I want to get it to a point I can live with (since we don't own it anyway and I can't REALLY do what I want to it) and stop spending money on it so we can save for lots and lots of travel we want to do while we live on the west coast. So basically, I have about a million projects to tackle.

I don't know what it is, I love a good table runner. Placemats just don't do it for me. But I got sick of my burlap table runner. Even though it's still January, it's basically spring here and I felt like my table needed something brighter and more fun. And I just never get sick of chevron patterns. I knew exactly what I wanted - a gray and white large scale chevron pattern table runner. But I couldn't find one - I couldn't even find fabric to sew one. So I had to make it. I used the same technique as my burlap table runner to make the runner itself. I didn't want to sew it because I wanted it to be totally smooth and I didn't want stitches showing through the paint.

Then I made a stencil and traced on the table runner with light pencil.

Then I taped it off using regular old blue painter's tape. I taped juuuust outside the pencil lines so they would be painted over and wouldn't show.

Then I painted it in with acrylic craft paint.

And before it dried I pulled the tape off. I did it in sections because I was working on the ironing board and didn't have space to let it dry. Plus the taping got tedious and I wanted a break from it.

And when it was all done, I got this:

What do you think? I love it! Totally worth the effort. You could do this with pretty much any pattern you are willing to spend the time taping. Or just use a regular stencil. Let me know if you try it!

Jalapeno lime salmon.

2011-01-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been MIA! I started full time at my job last week and it's been an adjustment!

Anyway, this was unbelievably good!

2 4 oz salmon fillets
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lime juice
1 jalapeno

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cut the jalapeno in half and place seed down in the oil. Saute for 4 or 5 minutes and throw away the pepper. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the salmon to the skillet. Cook about 3 minutes on each side or until it flakes easily. Add the lime juice to the pan and cook another minute on each side. I also put a splash of soy sauce on mine - SO good!

I never realized how tasty salmon comes out when you cook it in a skillet. We always broil or grill it. Some variation of this will definitely be a weekly meal in our house!

Hooray for Hollywood.

2011-01-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

Today we took a little drive with the Herringtons and hiked to the Hollywood sign. There's just something about the sign that makes catching a glimpse of it special every single time. For anyone in the area, the hike is a pretty good hike. It's about 6 miles round trip and although it's pretty steep in the beginning, it levels out in the end and the view of LA and the sign is worth the effort!

Oh yeah, Matt's skillz.

2011-01-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

This was what Matt made for the boys:

They loved it. Vinny tried to lay on it and cuddle with it. Good thing we stopped him before he ripped the canvas. But still, cutest moment ever.

1.1.11.

2011-01-01T22:05:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! It's so hard for me to believe it's 2011. As far back as I can remember I only thought as far ahead as 2010 because it was the year I would graduate college and the last year I knew for sure what I would be doing. It's kind of a funny feeling knowing that that's all behind me.

Our New Years Eve was one of my favorite ones yet. All of the friends we planned to spend New Years with ended up extending their trips when the company decided not to charge them for Christmas leave, so our original plans fell through. But in the end I was so happy to spend the night just the two of us. We saw The Fighter and went to P.F. Changs. Normally I'd want to go somewhere a little more special but since we are trying to live healthier this year (along with the rest of America!) we thought about what food we would really miss eating and decided eating at P.F. Changs for our "last meal" only made sense. We stayed up till midnight to ring in the new year with a kiss and went to bed immediately after. We're old folks, what can I say?

Today we cleaned and relaxed and took Jack to Carlsbad for some exercise. I wanted to see the first sunset of 2011 and Jack LOVES to run in the sand.

Look at him hurdle the log!

Perfect way to start off the New Year.

Cheers to the new year.

2010-12-31T07:27:00.000-08:00

Were back! I can't believe today is the last day of 2010. 2010 has been an amazing year. Matt went to school for his current job and graduated top of his class, we soaked up our last days of living in Hawaii, and went on our last inter-island trip to the Big Island which might actually be my favorite of all the islands. Here's a few pictures I love but haven't posted before of our last days in Hawaii:

In April, we sent our things off with TMO and slept on the plastic wrapped bed in the living room again. It's like our "extended honeymoon" came full circle. Then we hopped a plane for California where I cried my eyes out for about 2 hours mourning the loss of my first home. In California, we sat on the floor and slept on an air mattress for a month before our stuff got here. But I was okay with that because my house was certainly an upgrade from my shabby little apartment in Hawaii! The pictures of these beds make me laugh but also remind me how much moving across the ocean SUCKS.

In April we also bought our washer and dryer which was our first major appliance purchase and pretty exciting for us because we're nerdy like that! We spent most of May getting used to our new home, painting, decorating, and exploring the area. I graduated! Matt started his new job in June and worked super long days until August. I went home for a visit! But we still managed to squeeze in a little fun. Matt got promoted! And got instructor of the cycle! And Kelly, Nick and Steve came to visit too!

In September, we went to our first rodeo, took our road trip to San Francisco, went to Big Bear for a weekend on the lake, went to an Angels game, and then went to Virginia to visit our best friends from Hawaii.

In October, Matt started work again (and was picked to be the machinegun instructor for his company over lots of more experienced guys, a huge honor!) but we still found time to go apple picking, see the Patriots play at Chargers stadium, tailgate in Compton for a USC vs Oregon game, and dress up as Monsters for Halloween. In November, we went to Vegas for the Marine Corps ball and had our first California Thanksgiving.

This past month, we decked out the house for Christmas, walked around and enjoyed the food in Little Italy, went to Disneyland, celebrated our own little Christmas in California, and went home for a visit where we were bombarded with a blizzard and kisses from a 1 and 2 year old.

We've been so busy and done so many amazing things this year. This is honestly just a small sampling. To put into perspective how much traveling we've done just throughout the state of California - remember these maps I made?

Well this is what California looks like now. And we drove down the entire coast from the top pin all the way to the second pin from the bottom!

Needless to say, 2010 has been an amazing year full of changes, new friends, and new experiences. We cannot wait to see what 2011 has in store for us!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

2010-12-20T17:13:00.000-08:00

The closer it gets to Christmas, the busier we get! After Disneyland, the rest of the week was a whirlwind of work, shopping, wrapping, and trying to kick my cold for good (which was unsuccessful!). And then Saturday morning, we got in our Christmas PJs and FINALLY had our Christmas! Here was the tree on Christmas morning:

I am the most spoiled girl alive. And Matt is the best gift giver. I got so many things I've been obsessing over and some beyond thoughtful gifts. Matt has the best way of taking memories, inside jokes, whatever and turning them into the sweetest, most sentimental gifts. And he's so good at taking mental notes on things I like. I don't give him enough credit. My favorite part is of course watching him open his gifts. I'm so glad I was able to buy his gifts with my own money this year, it means so much more to me. I was going to post pictures of our Christmas but it was a special morning I want to keep all to ourselves. :)

The rest of the weekend I wanted to do nothing but relax. We watched Christmas movies and Matt worked on a Christmas gift for the boys that Kerry requested last year. I can't post any sneak peaks since I don't want my brother or Kerry to see it. But Matt is super talented when he has a paintbrush in his hand... and that's all I'll say about that! You will definitely be seeing a picture of the finished product, hopefully in Vinny's hands! And while Matt painted, I cooked and baked. Clam chowder and a chocolate candy cane cookie (my favorite flavor combo, as if I haven't said that enough times already) to be exact.

Clam Chowder

This was surprisingly easy and even more surprisingly tasty. Being from New England, I'm pretty picky about my clam chowder and I wasn't keen on the idea of using canned clams, but I also wasn't keen on the idea of paying for fresh when I didn't even know if we'd like the recipe. Totally exceeded my expectations.

3 6.5 ounce cans chopped clams
6 strips of bacon
1 small onion finely diced
2 medium russet potatoes diced
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup flour
1 quart half and half
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
plenty of black pepper

1. Fry up the bacon in a large skillet. Leave the grease in the skillet and drain the strips on paper towel.
2. Put potatoes and onions in the skillet with the bacon grease, and pour in the juice from the cans of clams. Put enough water in the skillet to cover the potatoes and onions and cook over medium heat until tender.
3. In a large heavy saucepan, make a rue with the butter and flour. Whisk in cream stirring constantly. Add in vegetables with all the juice from the skillet.
4. Stir in clams and heat through. Add red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Serve and enjoy!

And the chocolate candy cane cookie recipe is here. I just love them because they're so pretty. I also messed up the cookie recipe somehow because mine came out flat and crispy and the picture certainly doesn't look like the cookies are supposed to be flat and crispy. But they were still delish.

And as for the title, it really IS beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Boston! It's snowing! And I absolutely cannot wait to land and see the beautiful city covered in snow and have a white Christmas! We leave tomorrow at 10:20 on a red eye so this will be my last post before Christmas. For everyone at home who reads this, we CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU! And for everyone else, we wish you the safest travels and the happiest of holidays!

The happiest place on Earth.

2010-12-15T21:49:00.000-08:00

Matt graduated another class on Monday. It was like a big sigh of relief - I was SO DONE with the amount of hours he was working. So to celebrate, and just because he had the day off and we wanted to spend the day together, I called in sick (which I have NEVER done, eek!) and we went to Disneyland!

It was the most perfect day ever. The weather was yucky in the morning but turned out to be perfect (and by perfect I mean 70 degrees and kinda cloudy so the sun wasn't beating down all day), the park wasn't crowded at all, and we barely had to wait at all to get on any rides. Plus, the park was all decked out for Christmas! I can't see how any trip we ever make there could top this one. Except maybe when Vinny and Luke come to visit!

I actually didn't take a whole lot of pictures. I haven't been to Disney since I was little and I was just basking in the happiness and Christmas cheer!

First I got my Minnie ears!

Then we hopped on Astroblasters. We're not very good...

But it was our first time so cut us some slack!

We made our way around Tomorrowland and Fantasyland and I made Matt get on It's a Small World with me. I know lots of people can't even tolerate this ride, but I love its message... PEACE ON EARTH, ya hear!? :) I've never seen It's a Small World during the holidays and I got especially happy when I saw Irish step dancers and of course, MELE KALIKIMAKA!

My heart still aches for Hawaii - will it ever stop?

We saw Santa's reindeer...

And ate lots of Mickey shaped food...

I admired the Christmas decorations in New Orleans Square...

And I was especially happy we got to go inside the Haunted Mansion!

I made Matt take lots of dorky Disney pictures with me...

And at night, we enjoyed the SNOW on Main Street! I had no idea they made it snow and I almost cried. My heart aches for home too. Ya know, it's really hard when your heart is in so many places! But once I saw this:

I knew a little piece of my heart would be left here too.

OF COURSE we did more than what I've shown here, but we still missed so much and I CANNOT wait to go back! And actually, we already have our next trip planned! I'm counting down! Until next time, Mickey!

Deck the halls.

2010-12-13T17:03:00.000-08:00

Wanna see a few peeks of our house decked our for Christmas?

Well come on in!

My wreath bow is pretty smooshed because the wreath is fat and doesn't fit in between the door and screen. Isn't this the fattest wreath though? Finding real wreaths in Southern California has not proved to be easy!

For some reason I am obsessed with this little display in my entryway!

I "swagged" the garland instead of wrapping it and I'm happy with how it came out! Although I was pretty disappointed when I bought a super cute ribbon for the bows and didn't have enough and when I went back to get more it was sold out. I had to resort to his plain gold but I think it looks okay!

I spy a cute little guy (or his cute little ears anyway)...

Remember when I alluded to something special we pick out every year? Well, it's a nutcracker! I have been in love with nutcrackers since I was a little lady. Anyone from Abington knows about the huge nutcracker at the Christmas Place - well that's how my love affair got started at the age of, oh, 5. I have a huge collection at home but these are ours that we've picked out since we've been married! The pirate was our new one this year! I meant to stick him in the middle of the collage but I am just too lazy to go back and fix it, so don't mind my weird photo arrangement. :) Also that little wooden tree and the joy to the world were my only Christmas crafts of the season. Next year I need to get started early!

Our tree at night... isn't she a beaut?

Some ornaments we love!

And I almost forgot...

Of course Jack's home needs a little love too!!

We of course have little trinkets here and there around the house, but in the interest of not showing 50 pictures, I think this is a good sampling! If I had more money I would spend, spend, spend on Christmas decorations. After living in a tropical climate for a few years, I have learned decking out the house is the only way to make it feel like Santa Claus is actually coming to town! Only 12 more days!

Carne asada.

2010-12-12T19:46:00.000-08:00

Matt is like totally obsessed with carne asada anything. He always orders it whenever we're eating Mexican so I tried about a million recipes until I found one we both liked. My old boss in Hawaii actually gave me this recipe, and I sincerely doubt it's authentic or anything. But it's delicious!

Ingredients:
2 lb flank steak
1/2 cup tequila
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tbsp hot sauce (we love Tapatio)
8 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion or 1/2 large onion, diced
1 teaspoon pepper

Mix all the ingredients and marinate the steak for at least 4 hours. We usually grill it, we like the char marks! But you can either grill it to your desired doneness, or broil it which is what we did this time. I had never broiled it and I broiled it on low for 10 minutes each side to get it medium rare.

You can also leave the tequila out but the alcohol cooks out and you don't even really taste it - trust me, Matt would NOT be okay if he could tell there was alcohol in it! If you decide to leave it out, increase the orange juice and lime juice by 1/4 cup.

This is so yummy with Mexican rice and black bean salsa!

A Jamie Oliver stir fry.

2010-12-11T12:28:00.000-08:00

Oops, the whole week went by before I got to post any more recipes! Why does it get SO busy around the holidays!? On one hand, I love the hustle and bustle, but on the other hand, I'd love to do nothing but bake holiday goodies and relax! I actually got pretty sick over the last week so while Matt's at the mandatory battalion Christmas party I'm just laying low. I don't wanna get all the beautiful babies sick too!

Do you guys like Jamie Oliver? Personally, I think he's pretty amazing and I love cooking his food. His recipes usually require a lot of ingredients but in my opinion it's totally worth it because besides the obvious health benefits, it's kinda neat to see where the flavor of processed food comes from. Like when I finished cooking this, it tasted just like I poured a bottled Asian sauce you could buy in the store over the beef and veggies... but this was made from all fresh ingredients - which is a whole heck of a lot better for you.

I made this last week and it was REALLY tasty. I forgot snow peas so I'm sure this would be even better (and prettier!) with them added in.

Ingredients:
8 oz vegetable noodles
vegetable oil
1 lb steak (I used flank steak but you could definitely use something cheaper!)
2 garlic cloves minced
a "thumb-sized" piece of ginger peeled and finely sliced
1-2 chili peppers
1/2 pound bean sprouts
soy sauce
sesame oil
juice of 1/2 a lime
1 large red bell pepper finely sliced
a handful of snap peas
1 can baby corn quartered lengthwise
6 green onions chopped
a bunch of cilantro (or you can leave it out if you're a cilantro hater!)

1. Cook the egg noodles, drain, and set aside.
2. Heat a large wok and add a splash of vegetable oil. Stir fry the beef slices, garlic, ginger, and chilies until just cooked. It's super important not to overcook the beef here because you throw it back in later!
3. Add the beansprouts, a splash of soy sauce, a splash of sesame oil, and the lime juice and cook for about a minute.
4. Pour the contents of the wok into a large bowl with all the juices. Put the wok back on the heat and add more vegetable oil. Add all the veggies and stir fry 1 to 2 minutes. Add the cooked noodles and toss well.
5. Set aside the vegetables and noodles in a bowl and return the beef and juice to the wok and stir fry until heated through again. Add the cilantro and toss.

Serve the beef over the noodles and veggies! Enjoy!

My favorite meal.

2010-12-07T19:56:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite meal of the moment. I mentioned it before in another post. It comes from Elly Says Opa and we both honestly just want this all the time. I cooked a 2.3 lb flank steak and we ate the WHOLE THING.

I said this before but honestly, if you like mushrooms, you HAVE to try this. And I would recommend doubling the sauce!

I have a huge backlog of recipes that I wanted to share so you'll probably see a lot this week! And most are beef because after Thanksgiving we got sick of poultry reeaaall fast! So red meat lovers, stay tuned. :)

A date which will live in infamy.

2010-12-07T17:03:00.000-08:00

Always remember why the flags are at half mast today.

Jack gets a Christmas sweater.

2010-12-06T17:37:00.001-08:00

He loves it! He's so snuggly in general and I think he just thinks of this as like a blanket. It's a liiiiittle big but I knew the small wouldn't fit around him, he's such a fatty!

We tried to do a photoshoot but he just wanted to sleep, ha!

So much for my resolution to never put him in clothes!

And I figured out how to make my pictures bigger and still keep a sidebar. YAY!

Little Italy.

2010-12-05T20:40:00.000-08:00

This month is flying by! I can't even believe it's already the 5th of December! And we go home in TWO WEEKS. What!?

For some reason, no matter how much I deck out the house in red, gold, and glitter, it doesn't feel much like Christmas here, even less than it did in Hawaii somehow. I don't think I could ever get used to the Christmas in warm weather and I legitimately wish all people from warmer climates got to experience Christmas in a real winter setting. It's magical.

But we partook in many Christmas activities this weekend. Saturday we did the majority of our Christmas shopping and we watched The Santa Clause. Love Tim Allen. Mostly because I associate him with JTT. Hello 2nd grade crush. And today, we went to Little Italy downtown because I just really love my heritage. No actually, I just really wanted a limonata. If you don't know what a limonata is you're totally missing out. It's like a sparkling lemonade.

And limonatas are usually sold at Italian delis. And Italian delis are the best thing in the world. So I Yelp'd a good deli and read amazing things about Mona Lisa. And it TOTALLY exceeded my expectations. I didn't expect anything we ate in Little Italy to live up to what I've grown up eating or what I've eaten in the North End of Boston or even what we had in San Francisco. But Mona Lisa is really freaking good.

I had a Caprese sandwich and my limonata:

And Matt had a capicola, mortadella, salami, and provolone sandwich. Which is a REAL Italian sub. Not salami and ham. Or salami and pepperoni. He ate the first half during the two seconds I was taking pictures of my sandwich.

Super thinly shredded lettuce is always a good sign.

Then we got Gelato here:

Which was really good. And walked around Little Italy.

There are a ton of really cute, bright colored cottages that the Italian fishermen used to live in back in the day. The owners of this house obviously LOVE their heritage:

Look who we stumbled upon!

That's John Basilone, Matt's idol.

The thing I liked most about it though is there seems to be a sense of community. People were out and about and there were tons of people speaking Italian. That just makes my heart sing.

Also these are made in Little Italy:

That makes it a pretty amazing place, right?

Just hear those sleigh bell jinglin'.

2010-11-30T19:37:00.001-08:00

I am SO HAPPY it's the holiday season! And that I finally have some time to update! Thanksgiving was funnnnnn. I thought I would be sad about not whipping up the whole meal myself but it was a nice break. And definitely nice not to have to clean my house all by myself!

Matt carving the turkey:

Cannon still all smiles after thoroughly HATING his first taste of cranberry sauce:

Jack enjoying his Thanksgiving feast:

Some Call of Duty action occurred of course once we got home (don't mind the mess in the background):

The next day we put up the tree:

I think our tree is just perfect. I promise to share more pictures of our house because it's like a winter wonderland in here!

And of course Jack's favorite place is under the tree!

Then the rest of the weekend was pretty much a blur because Saturday we rushed to the ER when I literally thought I was going to die from stomach pain. There was an issue with my appendix and they thought I would need it out but PRAISE GOD my appendix wasn't fully inflamed and they were able to treat it with a cocktail of meds through an IV that knocked me out for the rest of the weekend. I'm still kind of disappointed we didn't get to do more with the weekend and I'm still not feeling great but I'm glad I'm resting rather than recovering from surgery! I feel like a drama queen even talking about it, but I am totally fine.

PS - Can you tell I ended up caving and buying a new camera? Matt was on duty Wednesday night and I was sitting here by myself thinking how sad I would be to not have nice pictures of the weekend. So I headed over to Best Buy and they told me if Black Friday had a cheaper price on the camera I could bring in my camera and they'd give me a price adjustment. Black Friday prices without the Black Friday craziness? Obviously, I was sold. And I love the camera.