Hooray for Overstock!

Today was a VERY good mail day at my house! Not only did I receive the foxy red dress I ordered from Modcloth.com,

 but my chair from Overstock.com showed up as well. I just barely ordered it on Monday and even though it only had to travel about 600 miles from the warehouse in Utah, I'd still say that was an exceptionally fast delivery, especially when shipping only cost me $1!

Here's the humongous box that was left on my doorstep:

Maren is thrilled because I've told her she can have the shipping carton to turn into a clubhouse. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous this weekend, so I think we'll move it out to the backyard and I imagine she'll be spending a good amount of time in it!

I did have to do some minor assembly on the chair, which I expected. It came in two pieces (the back and the seat) and I had to attach them with the long bolts provided. It took me about 15 minutes, tops--and I had my chair all ready to go!

Well, more like 99% ready to go--I do want to hit it with a good coat of Scotch Guard to protect the beautiful fabric. I will say that it's a bit larger than I had envisioned, and because of that I'm not entirely sure where I'm going to put it in my house. I purchased it with my front room in mind, but now it might even end up in my master bedroom, which I'd also like to redo soon. In fact, I've got my eye on another little treat from Overstock for that project:

I can't wait to replace the ugly ceiling fan over my bed with something pretty and sparkly like this! Add a chain cover and a dimmer switch, and I think we'll be on the right track towards creating the beautiful retreat that I have in mind!

The Scooby Gang in felt

Maren got such lovely gifts for her birthday party--I love being a mom to a girl, because even though I'm 32 and most certainly far too old for such things, I still really get a kick out of Barbies, Polly Pockets and American Girl dolls. :)

One of the most delightful gifts that Maren received was a labor of love--and felt!

This set of puppets was designed and handmade by my amazing friend Rachel. Aren't they incredible?

Seriously, the details slay me. These are finger puppets, folks--so they're only a few inches high. She made the Scooby gang, plus a mummy and a zombie to chase them.

She even made a Mystery Machine carrying bag for the Gang to ride in:

Rachel is so talented and creative. She has an Etsy shop called SprinkHaus. It's empty at the moment while she catches up on orders but I'm sure that you could convo her if you were interested in purchasing something--maybe she'd even make you a set of Scooby-Doo puppets!

The Scooby-Doo birthday party

The three things Maren loves most in this world, in order of importance:
1. Her bedraggled and well-loved Sea Lion stuffed animal.
2. Scooby-Doo.
3. Her family.

It was a no-brainer that we'd have a Scooby-Doo birthday party; I've been planning on it for months, but only in the last week before the party did I really get my inspiration. Thank goodness for all the creative people who share things online, because I took a bunch of the Scooby-Doo party ideas I read and stitched them all together to make our party. This post will be lengthy, but I wanted to share what we did in case it can help anyone else!

It wouldn't be a Scooby-Doo party without a mystery to solve, so we decided that would be the main activity for the kids. I hired my neighbor to make a Scooby-Doo cake for Maren--she did a wonderful job and as much as I love to bake, it was SO nice to not have to worry about the cake!

When the kids came over, we seated them at the table and let them work on Scooby-Doo coloring sheets I had printed. Once all of the guests arrived, I told them that we were going to do things a bit differently and eat the cake first, since I had this wonderful Scooby cake. I brought over one of my vintage cake aluminum cake domes and pulled it up to reveal that there was no cake! Instead, there was a note from the Birthday Phantom with a poem and instructions to follow the clues to solve find the cake. (I found the poem when Googling, but I didn't save sources for everything so unfortunately I don't have links)

For each clue activity, I made a Clue Card. I printed them all on bright green cardstock and copied and pasted appropriate Scooby-Doo pictures I found using Google image.

click to enlarge

The Clue Card had the instructions for the activity and on the back, there was an envelope. The envelope contained part of a coded message and instructions on where in the house to go for the next activity. The coded message was made using a simple A-1, B-2 cipher and was printed on purple cardstock. Because we had four activities, I wrote four rhyming lines and cut it into four pieces. The message told the kids where the Birthday Phantom had hidden the cake.

The first activity was called Daphne Disappears, because it seems like in almost every Scooby-Doo episode, Daphne gets kidnapped by the bad guys. I printed out a coloring page of Daphne and had Maren color it in, then cut it out and hid it in the family room. I used a series of rhyming clues (also found online) that led the kids all throughout the house and front and back yards, then finally back to where they started, where they had to find the picture of Daphne. Once they found her, we took the coded message and followed the instructions to the next room.

The second activity was Velma Loses Her Glasses, another standard occurrence in every Scooby-Doo episode. I got the idea for this game online as well. All of the kids sat close together on our huge sectional couch with their hands behind their backs. One kid was Velma, and had to turn her back and count to 15 while the others passed a pair of glasses back and forth behind their backs. Then 'Velma' got to turn around and had three guesses to see if she could catch who had the glasses. If a child was caught, then he or she had to be Velma.

Because we had so many kids, it was hard for Velma to guess correctly, so in the interest of time we just had each child take a turn at being Velma even if they didn't guess correctly. We played until the kids got bored, then opened the envelope to get the coded message and followed the instructions to the next game.

The third activity was Snack time for Shaggy and Scooby. In every Scooby-Doo episode, Shaggy and Scooby get hungry and find themselves something to eat. For this game, I drew a huge Scooby head on a piece of cardboard and Maren helped me color it with crayons.

I altered the picture slightly so that his mouth was open and we and taped it to the wall. I printed out a clip art hamburger from Microsoft Word for each child, and we played Pin the Hamburger on Scooby's Mouth. Everyone got a turn, then we took our coded message piece and followed the instructions outside for the final activities.

Thank goodness the weather was sunny so that we could go outdoors! For the previous two years, the weather had been terrible (cold and snowy) on the day of Maren's party so we were limited to what we could do inside. Being able to go outside (even if it was chilly in the shade) was so wonderful and made the party much more fun!

The fourth activity was Run from the Phantom. The Scooby Gang does lots of running from the bad guys in every episode, so the kids had to practice running from the Birthday Phantom by playing a game of "Scooby, Scooby, Phantom!" AKA Duck, Duck, Goose.

They played until they got bored, and then we moved onto the next activity. At this point, The Mister slipped away while the kids were busy and headed out to the garage, where he dressed in the black robe and mask from a leftover Grim Reaper Halloween costume and waited for his signal.

The final activity was to Make a Disguise and Set a Trap. I brought Maren's big bin of dress-up clothes outside and let the kids dress up in disguises.

Once we had our disguises on, we had to set a trap to catch the Phantom. We used a long piece of rope and the cargo net from the back of our car and the kids decided how we would capture the Phantom if he showed up. While they were busy, I surreptitiously sent a text message to The Mister, and in a few moments he ran into the backyard screaming and yelling, straight into the trap the kids had laid. :)

I handcuffed him with a pair of plastic cuffs, and then the kids got to unmask him and find the Phantom's true identity--and of course he had to say the classic line, "And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids!" He surrendered the key to the code, so we all trooped back inside. I divided the kids into four groups and gave them each a copy of the key, and they worked together to decode the messages and put the lines in the proper order.

The message led them to the garage, where they had to enter a numeric code on the keypad and eventually found the cake in the back of the car. We all went back inside and had cake and lemonade and Maren opened her gifts.

For party favors, I purchased purple and turquoise paper sacks at a party store. In the sacks were Scooby-Doo fruit snacks, Scooby-Doo Band-Aids (I broke up a box and gave each kid a few), Scooby-Doo Silly Bandz (again, I broke up a larger package and each kid got a couple), Scooby-Doo stickers, a little plastic magnifying glass, a ghost sucker made from a Tootsie Pop and a white coffee filter, and a gummy hamburger.

It really was fun--even The Mister remarked on what a good time he'd had! It was pretty inexpensive--the only costs were the cake, balloons and the party favors, which weren't terribly expensive. I found the Scooby-Doo cups, plates and tablecloth on 75% off clearance at Target, so they cost literally pennies. I used cardstock I already had to print out the clue cards and used free images I found online. The coloring pages were available online for free. The poster board was actually the back of the insert from a poster frame I bought a few weeks ago. Clean-up was a breeze too, especially compared to last year's cupcake decorating frosting-and-sprinkles mess!

I know Maren had a great time, and I'm proud that The Mister and I were able to put on a creative, inexpensive, and memorable party for her!

My Ballard Designs knock-off chair from Overstock.com

Hello, friends! I survived Maren's Scooby-Doo birthday party and a blog post about it will be forthcoming. It was a success and we had such fun, but I'm glad it's over. :)

Right now, I'm giddy because I just ordered the cutest chair from Overstock.com! I first saw the Signature Tan Linen Slipper Chair in an ad in the February 2011 issue of Victoria magazine. When I went online to check it out, I was disappointed that the current price was $30 higher than the price printed in the ad--boo! So I put it in my Wishpot and forgot about it.

This morning, there was an email from Wishpot telling me that the chair was on sale, for $60 off the regular price. I also did a quick search and found a 10% off coupon code here, which saved me another $23 and shipping was only $1! I recently sold my Bosch mixer to a friend, so that will fund my new chair.

So, ya wanna see it?

When I saw it in the magazine ad, I thought immediately of the fabulous Document Brown printed fabric from Ballard Designs that I've long ogled in their catalogs:

The armless Brockton chair is the closest to a slipper chair that Ballard offers, and you can order it covered in Document Brown fabric for a mere $467.00, plus an extra $40 for oversized item shipping. The Overstock chair was half the price and is a very similar look!

Overstock also offers the Phoenix Signature Tan Upholstered Bench for $198:

I actually would have ordered the bench instead of the chair, but it was just a bit too long for the space I wanted it to be. It would be cute to place at the end of a bed, in a hallway or under a mirror or painting to anchor the space. And what room couldn't use more seating?

I've never ordered furniture from Overstock, so I'll be sure to give you all a review when it gets here!

Petite Inspiration Box swap

Even though I've largely sworn off swaps, I couldn't resist signing up for Speckled Egg's Petite Inspiration Box swap, and boy am I glad I did! Heather's Petite Box swaps are perfect--all you have to do is embellish a kitchen matchbox according to the theme and then fill it with goodies. Small and do-able, right? The theme for this round was Flea Market--right up my alley!

I was paired with two lovely ladies: Barb from 123 Lavender Lollipop Lane and Tammie from My Art Soul Wings. We each made two boxes and each received two. Here are the boxes I received from Tammie and Barb:

Aren't they pretty? And the contents were wonderful too:

Doesn't this look like a game of Vintage I Spy? All those yummy little bits and trinkets, just waiting to be stashed away until the perfect project. You won't think I'm crazy if I admit that I enjoy the organizing and the having just as much as the using, right?

Sweet Barb also included a pair of the most fabulous kitchen towels that she made, embellished with rickrack, vintage fabrics and vintage buckles:

You had better believe that I'm not letting anyone wipe their dirty hands on these beautiful things! Barb also made the most adorable little pillowcases to match my kids' bedrooms.

As usual, I didn't get a photo of my boxes before I sent them because I was in such a hurry to get them into their shipping boxes. I was putting them together at the very last minute, as The Mister was literally moving things out of the office around me because we had new carpet installed the following morning. Here's a photo that I swiped from Tammie's blog of the box I sent her (the box for Barb was nearly identical with a few differences in contents and a similar flower on the top):

I was feeling kind of clever because the silver flower that adorned the top of the box is actually a pin that I made, so it did double duty as an embellishment for the package and a gift for my partners to wear as well. I also made each lady a charm bracelet using vintage and new buttons, jewelry, and charms. I hoped that it might look like it was made with trinkets you'd pick up at a flea market.

I loved this swap! I got to "meet" two really fun ladies, enjoyed putting together their packages and received two outstanding packages in return. I'm so glad I participated--thanks to Heather for hosting!

I'm running off to join the circus--but only if it's a Vintage-style circus!

I was at Michael's the other night reveling in the glory that is child-free shopping, when I found this cute new stuff in the $1 bins:

I've been kicking around the idea of doing a vintage circus theme for Porter's 2nd birthday party but seeing all of these cute things definitely made the decision for me! There are printed paper sacks (goodie bags), blank cards (all they need is a printed insert to become invitations), cupcake papers, rubber stamps, and the cutest paper masks that would make fun photobooth props. There are actually three motifs within the line: the circus, hot-air balloons and acrobats, all with a cool vintage style and great color scheme. I'm so excited to use all of these cute things, even though Porter's birthday is still six months away. That just gives me plenty of time to plan, right?

Maren's 6th birthday is this week and her birthday party will be on Saturday. She's a huge Scooby-Doo nut so we're having a Scooby-Doo theme this year. I had decided not to go all out with Scooby-Doo branded decorations and paper goods; rather, I was going to use the Scooby-Doo colors of purple, turquoise, lime green and orange and ordered a Scooby cake to be made by our neighbor. However, yesterday at Target I found Scooby-Doo paper plates, cups and a tablecloth on 75% off clearance for around 40¢ per package, so my love for a bargain is winning out over my aesthetics on that one! I have lots to do this week to get ready for the party, but I think it will be really fun!

Lemon Chicken and Artichoke Pizza

A few weeks ago I found my new favorite pizza recipe and wanted to share it with you because I made a few tweaks to the original recipe. I love the flavors, and I think the lemon sauce is nice and springy! You can view the original recipe here.

The original recipe was shared by Amy Richardson on a tv show called Studio 5. You can watch a video of her making the pizza below.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Her version had stalks of whole roasted asparagus laid across the top which looked pretty, but was seriously impractical when it came to eating! I used nice skinny asparagus and cut it in half, but it was still awkward to eat and although I like roasted asparagus, I didn't think it added much to the pizza itself. So--in my version, you can eat the asparagus on the side, or skip it altogether! I didn't include instructions for roasting but you can visit the link to find them if you wish.

I've added chopped fresh tomatoes to my version, because I love the bright fresh flavor they add to any pizza and the pretty color is nice too. I love artichoke hearts on just about anything, but I think the lemon in the sauce is an especially nice pairing for them. Just be sure to give them a quick chop before you sprinkle them on.

Heidi's Lemon Chicken and Asparagus Pizza

Crust:
I'll confess, I used premade dough for my crust. I was in a hurry, and my grocery store sells whole wheat pizza dough so I went with that. If you have a recipe you love, just make enough for two 12" pizzas or one 14" thick crust pizza. When I made this at my mom's house, she used the dough recipe that came with her Cuisinart food processor and it was yummy!

Sauce:
The recipe says it makes enough for two 12" pizzas and I didn't believe it because it doesn't look like much in the pan--but it will be enough, trust me! It thins a bit when it hits the warm crust.

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 tsp fresh minced garlic
zest from 1/2 lemon
2-3 tsp fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

1. Warm the oil in a small saucepan. Whisk in flour until smooth.
2. Gradually whisk in the milk and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until the sauce thickens.
3. Whisk in the garlic. Remove from heat and add lemon juice, zest, salt and pepper to taste.

Toppings:
2-3 cups cooked chicken breast, shredded (cook breasts or use a rotisserie chicken)
1 can artichoke hearts, cut into quarters
2-3 fresh Roma tomatoes, chopped
2 Tbsp fresh thyme, snipped
2-3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Sprinkle a bit of cornmeal on your pizza pan, stone, or cookie sheet and place the rolled out dough on it. Prebake the dough for 7-9 minutes.
3. Remove toasted crust from the oven and spread on half of the sauce. Layer with chicken, artichoke hearts, chopped tomatoes, thyme and cheese.
4. Bake pizza for 7-9 minutes, just long enough to warm the sauce, crisp the crust and melt the cheese.

Makes two 12" crusts or one 14" thick crust pizza.

The Wearing of the Grin

A little St. Patrick's Day fun, Looney Tunes style!

Spool decor

Some cute ideas for making your own vintage-style spool decor with real and faux spools:

Check Kristine's website for the free download to make the giant spool label.

Two good women.

Last night, my beloved Gram returned honorably to her heavenly home. I don't like thinking that she lost her battle with cancer, because that implies weakness on her part and my Gram was not weak. Her body was fragile, but her spirit was strong and cancer most certainly didn't beat her. She endured to the end and that's why I believe that she won the right to leave her imperfect body behind and be at rest.

The last time I saw my Gram, December 30

It's not fair, really--my grandpa, her husband, passed away back in September and it was not even two full months after his death that she received a terminal diagnosis. I think she had been looking forward to a rest after dealing with him but that just wasn't the plan for her.

Gram's birthday party, 2008

In the short months and weeks since her diagnosis, her children have been with her around the clock. She told my dad that she prayed that God would extend her life so that she would be able to spend more time with them, and I believe that He did. She was able to spend precious one-on-one time with each of her children and some of her grandchildren as well, a mercy for which we're all grateful.

Gram meeting a newborn Maren for the first time

My Gram was an exceptional woman. Her whole family simply adores her; she's truly our matriarch and queen. We'll miss her acutely. I'm thankful that my two children had the chance to know her. Porter won't remember her, unfortunately, and Maren is young so I don't how well she'll remember. I plan to make sure that as they grow I tell them about her so they know what a special person she was and how very blessed and lucky I am to have her as my dear Gram.

Exactly a week ago today, another exceptional woman departed this Earth. A woman from my church congregation who was only 48 and by all accounts very healthy (I just saw her at the gym two weeks ago), had a heart attack and died very unexpectedly and tragically. She left behind her husband and five sons, the youngest still in high school. I went to her funeral on Saturday morning and it was an incredibly uplifting and inspiring experience, despite the sorrow at her loss. Of all the people that I know, she is among the very most qualified to meet her Maker with no notice. Learning more about the life she led has inspired me to be better in every way.

Two good, righteous women gone, and the Earth is poorer for their loss. I'm privileged to have known them both and look up to them both immensely.

Things that are RED: red polka dot plates

Thanks for your encouragement on my last post! I made progress last night by getting nine sets of rubber stamps listed on eBay, and I'm taking advantage of my sleeping baby right now to photograph some more stuff while the light is good.

One more good reason to clear out my cupboards: to make room for these cute red and white polka dot plates that I got on post-Valentine's clearance at Target last week!

They're salad plate-sized, and won't they look darling heaped with fresh strawberry shortcake?

Getting serious about my Stuff with Peter Walsh

Let me be honest: I am never going to embrace a minimalist lifestyle. I like my Stuff, plain and simple. "Restrained" and "understated" are probably never adjectives that will be used to describe me! All those cutesy decorative signs and stuff that you see in gift shops that say "Simplify" in a swirly sort of script make me giggle, because I will NEVER have one hanging in my home.

That being said, I mentioned the other day that I feel like I'm drowning in my Stuff right now. I still love my Stuff, don't get me wrong--but right now it's taking over and making me unhappy. If you walked into my home right now, you'd never know that while I was growing up, my bedroom was neat and tidy: a place for everything, and everything in it's place. My mom never ever had to get after me to clean my bedroom, and I was always a great college roommate because my side of the room and bathroom was tidy and I cleaned up after myself in the kitchen and common areas.

And then I had kids.

Kids who do not so far seem exhibit those same proclivities toward neatness, making me fear that their father's dominant Messy gene won out in that battle. I'm not blaming my current messiness on my kids (okay, not entirely). The simple fact is that now that I have children, I have more responsibilities in the same amount of time, and something has to give. That something is unfortunately my neatness and organization. I feel like the state of my house is negatively affecting the state of my mental clarity and I'm ready to do something about it.

I picked up Peter Walsh's new book, Lighten Up, at the library a few weeks ago. At first I was disappointed because I felt like the subject matter didn't really apply to me, but then this weekend I took another look and found a statement that really got my attention:

"I'll say this again, too: no matter whether you own or rent your space, you're paying per square foot. Space has value, too. If the stuff in your space is driving you nuts, then step up and do something about it. It won't fix itself on its own. Giving time to what you value is important. When you lose your ability to enjoy a room or to store your car and seasonable items in a tidy garage, you're throwing that portion of your rent or mortgage down the drain." (Lighten Up page 252, emphasis mine)

My Stuff is indeed driving me nuts, and I've lost the ability to enjoy more than one room in my house so this went straight to my heart. In the book, Peter suggests calculating the value of your home ÷ your square footage to get an idea of what each square foot of space in your house is worth. With every square foot full of clutter, you are losing out on usable space in your home and basically throwing that money away! We've been talking a lot about square footage and mortgages lately because we were considering a move, so that concept is very striking to me.

Peter also suggests a schedule for organized living, with a different category each month. The one for March is "Tension Tamer" and the assignment is to choose one area of your home that deserves the greatest amount of attention and focus your energy on that one for the month. Right now, the biggest Stuff monkey on my back is my Etsy/ebay/Craigslist mess. I enjoy selling on Etsy and have plenty of "inventory" that I've picked up but I just can't seem to get going and get it listed. It's ironic, because I've noticed that the more frequently I list, the more I seem to sell (due to Etsy's default search settings). I keep bringing in more Stuff to sell, but I'm not selling at the rate I'm accumulating so I have a huge imbalance and as a result, can't walk around in our home office because of the giant pile in the middle of the floor.

Prompted by Peter, I've made a decision: I'm giving myself until March 31 to deal with my stuff. By "deal with" I mean photograph and list for sale on Etsy, eBay or Craigslist. Whatever is not listed by March 31 gets donated, no matter what! No matter how cute it is, or what it cost, or how sure I am that it will sell--it's gone! During my Tension Tamer challenge, I'm also on a junking freeze (after the trip I have planned tomorrow--I'm shopping for a swap). No more bringing in until I get more out! I'm giving myself a pass on my Christmas items, however, since listing those right now is a waste of money.

This is going to be a big challenge for me! I get 2.5 hours per day of kid-free time per weekday while Maren is at kindergarten and Porter is napping, and any other things I need or want to get done without little helpers has to be done during that time as well, ergo I won't be able to devote that whole time each day to my challenge. I'm hoping that my motivation not to "waste" my stuff by giving it away on April 1 will motivate me to work quickly and efficiently. I'm also planning to be out of town for a week in March, so that's why I'm starting now instead of waiting until March 1--I need every single day I can get for this to work!

I got started yesterday by photographing some rubber stamp sets that I'll be listing on eBay this week. eBay is having a listing special that ends a week from today, so that's even more motivation to get things listed quickly. I know this was lengthy, but I hope by getting it all out there publicly, I'll feel more accountable to get moving and make my challenge a success! Wish me luck!

Valentine's Day decor

I know it's WAY after the fact, but I did want to post photos of this year's Valentine's Day decor, both for my own records and just to share some fun pictures.

Last week, I posted the window I made and mentioned that I wanted to back it with old book pages. It was a project that took me about five minutes and made a big impact! I simply cut a piece of cardboard box to size, sprayed it with spray adhesive and slapped on some old dictionary pages. It's adhered to the back of the window with blue painter's tape so it is easily removable, but it occurs to me now that I could have also cut it to the size of the glass and just wedged it in, eliminating the need for tape.

The window inspired me to use a red, black and white theme for my decorating this year. I used the red honeycomb medallions that I made last year and stuck them into a red and silver vase. I added my red gumball machine that is half-full of white buttons, a few black thrift-store finial-thingies, and at the last minute added a cute vintage-style Valentine take-out box that has a black beaded handle.

For the top of my little dresser, I used a vintage redwork tablecloth, an old red book, and a vintage candy box from an estate sale last summer. I added a bit of black with a neat cameo pin (thrifted, should get a better photo to show a close-up) and a red, black and white folding ruler used to hold up a vintage Valentine from my collection.

I stayed with the color scheme when filling my muffin tin table. Yup, still my favorite piece of furniture in the house!

Back before Christmas I found this darling vintage chalkboard at an antique store, but I've never showed it on my blog because it's hard to get a good photo with the lighting in the room and because there's a big chip in the navy wall paint that I've been too busy/lazy/distracted to fix. I picked out some Valentines that school kids would have exchanged and hung them with tiny clothespins from a length of baker's twine.

Just for fun, I added an old class photo (dated 1938) that I picked up somewhere and suspended it from little metal clips inside a thrifted frame that looks like it's made from old rulers.

I didn't get things decorated until the Friday before Valentine's Day so I'll probably leave them up for another week while I decide what to put up in their place. I got rid of all my St. Patrick's Day stuff (what little there was) because I just can't get really excited about the holiday, plus kelly green just does not go with the paint on my walls! Easter is late in April this year so I have a good month before I'll want put out the bunnies & eggs, so I'll have to do something non-holiday related. There's never a wrong time for aqua pottery so I think I might go that direction.

Lemony Chickpea Dip

Last weekend I had some friends over to chat, make a Valentine and eat yummy food. I wanted to offer some healthy choices alongside the not-so-nutritious options, but my challenge was that I wanted everything to fit within my chosen color palette of red, pink and white. I knew I wanted to offer fresh veggies (red bell peppers, radishes, jicama and grape tomatoes) and some kind of dip, so I turned to a recipe I made quite a while ago and had marked as "yummy + healthy!" It was just as good as I remembered--maybe even better--and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a pinkish-red, so it fit in with my color scheme! The things that make my little OCD self happy. ;)

It's a bit like hummus, but without the tahini. The lemon juice gives it a nice bright flavor and the sour cream smooths out the texture. Even Porter likes it!

Lemony Chickpea Dip 
from Cooking Light magazine

1/3 cup fat-free sour cream
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp hot paprika (I used regular)
1/2 tsp hot sauce (this doesn't make it spice, I promise)
1/4 tsp salt
1 19-oz can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

1. Combine all ingredients except cilantro in a food processor; process until smooth. Pour into a bowl. Stir in cilantro. Yield: 1 1/2 cups (serving size: 2 Tbsp)

Each serving only has 40 calories and 1.7g of fat, which is so low that you can have several and not feel too guilty. I promise you're not going to be able to limit yourself to just 2 Tablespoons! It's excellent as a dip for fresh veggies or with pitas or pita chips.

Porter, 17 months

I'm in a bit of a blogging slump, which seems to happen to me each year right around this time--the last time I had more than 10 posts in February was back in 2008! Right now, keeping my family fed, in clean clothes and keeping Porter out of mortal danger (or at the very least, serious mischief) all day long is taking up all of the mental, physical and creative energy I possess. The idea of coming up with something interesting and clever to write about is just overwhelming, to say nothing of setting up, taking and editing nice photos to accompany my words.

I feel like I'm drowning in a messy, undecorated house and lack the motivation and kid-free time to do a thing to remedy either. I know that everyone says to cherish the days when your kids are small, but right now I'm counting the days until Porter quits climbing into the kitchen sink and spraying water everywhere, or dumping the books out onto the floor for the 96th time that day, or emptying the dog's water bowl all over the wood floors, or eating Maren's crayons and markers, or playing in the butter dish, etc. etc.

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I haven't mentioned it a whole lot here (Facebook has seen the brunt of my exasperation) but Porter is hard. My parents visited a few weeks ago; the last time we'd seen each other was September. I've told them over the phone all of the shenanigans he gets up to and how difficult it's been for me to deal with him, but I'm pretty certain they thought I was exaggerating. I felt completely vindicated when they visited and my mom admitted that she's never seen another kid like him!

He's just one of those kids who is INTO EVERYTHING, ALL OF THE TIME. He's extremely strong and has quite advanced motor skills for his age (he'll be 17 months tomorrow). He's also a champion problem-solver and maddeningly persistent--add that to fearless and three parts-spider monkey, and you can imagine why I spend the bulk of my day pulling him off the kitchen chair that he has pushed against the counter so that he can reach the butter/phone/kitchen sink/knives/glasses of water/etc. and create some sort of havoc from it, and in record-time because did I mention he's also FAST?

I love him, and I adore when he grabs a book and climbs on my lap to have me read to him or when he puts his head on my shoulder and snuggles in (he's a far cuddlier kid than Maren ever was at this age). But most days, I'm afraid I'd have to seriously consider if some gypsies came knocking on my door and offered to take him off of my hands for me...

Valentine vintage window decor

I love decorating for each holiday, but because I like to make things hard on myself  like new decorating challenges, I usually change things up each year. Here's what my Valentine decor looked like last year:

I really liked how it all looked, but I got tired of the mercury glass candlesticks and gave them all away, and the little vignette on my bench is out of the question this year because of a certain little Master of Disaster so I need to do something different this year.

Changing up my decorations each year means that it takes me a little while to get it all put together and tweaked until it's just right. I don't have this year's decor done so I don't have a photo yet, but I did make something new to be the centerpiece of my display.

I used an old window I bought several years ago at a garage sale. I decorated it for Christmas too but I never got around to showing it on my blog though I suppose now's as good a time as any:

For Christmas, I made a banner using my die-cutting machines. I cut the cute scalloped bases out of old sheet music with my Sizzix Big Shot and edged them with vintage silver glitter. I cut the letters out of red cardstock using my new Cricut machine, and clipped them onto strings of red and white baker's twine using tiny clothespins. The twine was attached to the frame using tiny clear 3M Command hooks.

For my Valentine display I knew I wanted to use my window again and even purchased some pink vinyl to use with my Cricut machine, but I changed my mind at the last minute and used cardstock instead. I've seen a few things around Etsy and blogland using this little phrase and since I'm a big-time Beatles fan, decided I'd use it too.

To get my words all straight and evenly spaced, I used a ruler to divide the window into equal sections, then used a dry-erase marker and drew lines on the back side of the window. From there it was easy to cut out, arrange and adhere my letters in nice straight lines, and then I just used a spritz of Windex to clean the lines off the back of the glass when I was done!

I put my photo background board behind the window so I could get a better picture of it, but I actually really like how it looks and I think I'll make one the correct size to place behind the window for my display. Now I just need to put the rest of the display together...