I'm sorry I thought this was a jungle-gym...

The last two mornings I have caught the little one playing with her kitchen set in a new and exciting way.

 Who said kitchens were just for cooking?

The sink also makes for a comfy chair while cooking.

Somehow I don't think that standing in the sink is recommended but it sure is much easier to reach things stacked up top!

"Total Score" Moment and then a Total "Oh Shit" Moment...

 On the way to the grocery this morning a beautiful claw foot sofa caught my eye as it sat outside a consignment shop that is going out of business. I thought about stopping but then decided probably not a good idea, i didn't really need it. On the way home passed it again and thought, maybe I should stop and check the price. I was in a hurry to get home to put away the groceries that were melting away in the car so I opted not to. I got home and realized that the bagger at the store had neglected to put part of my order in the cart so off we went to retrieve it from the store. Therefore, I had to pass that beautiful sofa again. Needless to say on the 4th trip past I couldn't help myself and pulled in. I have always loved the look of this kind of sofa. She had a price on it that was reasonable but not what I wanted to pay so I offered her half. After a few minutes of bargaining we agreed on a price we both thought was fair and low and behold I am now the proud owner of a recently refurbished claw foot sofa! YEA! Total Score!

The shop owner told me she had purchased it at the estate sale of the mother of Marshall Tucker who is the front man for the Marshall Tucker band. So it does have a little back story to it, which is always interesting with any piece of old furniture.

After getting it home I went to decide where to put it when I noticed on one of the other couches we have, a small stub of red crayon. I thought "I should pick that up before it makes a mess" and that is when I noticed this...

 Can't see it well? Let me show you a close up...

 "Oh Shit!" I was a little late on my thought of not having a mess on my couch! The little one had taken red crayon to my cream colored couch! I'm not sure when she decide to be an artist on my couch, but she did own up to it when I called her in the room to ask her about it.

" Did you do this?" I asked "yes Mommy" she replied. "That is bad, you were a bad girl!" I scolded as she burst into tears! Hopefully lesson learned by both of us. For me, I need to keep a closer eye on the crayons for her it is to not draw on mommy's sofa!

Here she is shortly after the crayon incident went down.Still with a few tears in her eyes, she agreed to one photo.  Not the best moment for a photo shoot but I really wanted to get a picture of her in her new dress, to show off to you all,  that her very talented aunt just whipped up and sent to her!

It is too precious! Thanks sister! I hope to get some better pics of it when we are in a better mood and I am done washing crayon off my sofa! :)

Princess cookies for a princess party....

A girlfriend of mine had a princess themed birthday party for her little girl and had asked me to make some princess themed cookies for the event. Here is what I came up with. I think they turned out really well and I look forward to making them again for my own little princess.

Large tiaras - pink glaze with purple and pink sprinkles with sugar pearls

Small tiaras - purple glaze with purple sprinkles and sugar pearls

Princess Castles - Pink glaze and pink sprinkles

Princess slippers - light red glaze with red frosting and sugar pearls

I always forget how time consuming decorating these little suckers are, my only regret was that I didn't start earlier in the day as I was up until after 10pm finishing them! The small cookie cutters came from Michael's Arts and Craft store for $3. What a bargain and so cute! They will also make good sandwich shapes for the little one's PB&J's as she won't eat a plain sandwich, they must be cut into cute shapes!

:)

Top Chef?

Peaked into the little one's room the other morning and found that she was in her kitchen cooking up a gourmet meal or rather soup of baby doll!

She even threw in a little lemon to add some flavor.

Which dull plastic knife would you like me to cut your head off with?

Maybe this dish needs a little more seasoning, how about a little pepper or salt?

I think I will just zap you in the microwave. That will be faster!

It may be time...

I think the time has come to officially start potty training. A few months ago the little one seemed interested and after two successful pee pee's in the potty she decided she was through with it and refused to go near the potty again. Last night after bath she insisted that she wanted to "practice" on the potty, and she successfully did so. As a reward she got a tattoo, which she was thrilled about. Today we have tried the potty a few times but the only progress we made was a big puddle on the floor! She seems excited at the the prospect of receiving a tattoo or sticker as reward but at this point I think I'm the one who needs to step it up. I have been dragging my feet because when you are on the go, diapers are a hell of a lot easier, but at this point if I don't get on it we may miss the window of opportunity.

If anything I have this cute photo to blackmail her with when she gets older, nothing like threatening to show it to her future prom date!

Mid Month Recap...

It's hard to believe that we are already halfway through the month of July. We have been so busy this month the days have flown by.  I will start this recap by showing off our kitchen update.

Before photo: Standard granite back splash with lovely stains on the painted wall behind sink and stove. We have repainted that wall several times but some stains just bleed right through. Yuck!

The halfway point, hubby is working super hard!

The finished product! I'm in love! It is so nice that now when I boil over spaghetti sauce and it splatters on the wall I can just wipe it away!

The black splash ties in with the counter tops and cabinets wonderfully and it has really brightened up the kitchen.

In between tiling and grouting I did manage to get hubby out of the house for a little 4th of July celebrating. We met up with some friends and their kiddos to start the holiday weekend. Our city has a little celebration in the center of town that we checked out.

Here is the little one giving the chick fil a moo cow a bi high five!

We also overran a very small burger place in town. They were not expecting a big crowd having just opened a few days earlier. 6 adults and 5 kids really filled the restaurant.

We were all starved, our new friend Addison was so hungry she decided to taste the pepper! Yum!

Amelia wondered if the food would ever arrive?

Chris was just wishing the restaurant had more than 1 high chair!

The food did finally arrive and it was yummy. Hubby decide to test the chili cheeseburger which arrived looking quite dangerous but was apparently very yummy because the next time I looked at his plate it was completely gone!

The next evening we ventured out to see the fireworks at the last minute. Which worked out great because we were far enough away to see them but not have all of the loud noise. We were worried how the little one would react but she was mesmerized!

We celebrated hubby's birthday last week. My folks drove in to drop off my sister who was visiting from Minnesota. Mom brought these festive Thomas the train cupcakes to celebrate with. Too cute and way too yummy!

Hubby was excited to be the proud recipient of a Handy Manny toy boat set complete with a miniature "Turner" the tool.

Also to celebrate hubby's birthday and also my sister's recent birthday I had planned for a baby sitter (thanks Amanda!) to come so we could go paddle boarding! I rented two paddle boards and a kayak for us to play around with. We had a ball! None of us had ever tried paddle boarding before but I think we all did really well for beginners. Here is hubby catching a wave. We had a good laugh after having the picture's developed because the waves really did seem bigger when we out there but looked like tiny ripples in the pics!

Here is sister looking professional...

Until she dropped her paddle. Hubby luckily was able to quickly retrieve it!

Here I am in the kayak, which I totally fell in love with. We actually own a kayak but it is a sit inside kind and is not nearly as comfortable or easy to use.

While sister was visiting, not only did she completely entertain the little one but she completed an awesome dress for the little one! Here she is looking completely frustrated by my sewing machine which was on the fritz.

The dress is fantastic. She got the pattern from a book, written by a friend of hers, called One-Yard Wonders.  Here the little one models it while holding another gift from her aunt "Fred" the wiggly worm.

While my sister was here we had the opportunity to take the little one to meet some horses. I had inquired to a local boarding farm about when it would be age appropriate for her to ride since she is fascinated with horses and cows and was offered the chance to come out and meet some horses. Little one got to pet, brush and feed treats to 2 different horses. She had a great time and didn't seem the slightest bit worried about being next to such a large animal. I hope to take her back to visit again soon.

Well that about wraps up the first part of the month, we have been having a lot of fun and look forward to seeing what the next few weeks may bring. Hopefully we can sneak in lots of beach days! :)

New Recipes...

Here is a little taste of what has been coming out of the kitchen around here lately.

I had been dying to try this recipe I had for a creamy- vanilla raspberry pavlova for some time and I finally made the effort . It was well worth the effort because it was super yummy! I used a simple recipe that I found in one of the Kraft food magazines. The hardest thing about this recipe is the wait time as the meringue cooks for an hour and a half.

The picture doesn't really do it justice. It is a melt in your mouth dessert perfect for the warm weather. I think it would be good with any type of berry. I'll just have to force myself to make it again so that I can try it with blueberries!

Another new recipe that I recently cooked is actually an appetizer. I had puff pastry on hand and was not in the mood to cook much for dinner one evening so I though and appetizer and salad would be enough to satisfy hubby. The full recipe is here.

The picture version follows...

Take thawed puff pastry and roll out as thin as you can creating a 10 x 14 rectangle. Cut in half. Brush with egg white and water mixture.

Coat one piece with grated Parmesan cheese and dried red pepper.

Layer on thin sliced ham. I used Boar's Head tavern ham because that was what we had handy.

Cover with other half of puff pastry. Roll to seal.

Roll up like a jelly roll.

Slice into 24 pieces. Cook on parchment paper until lightly browned.

Enjoy! The recipe says it makes 12 servings of 2 pieces each serving. Hubby and I ate all of them in one sitting with a salad. (Not sure I should share that fact!). They would make a great appetizer as the recipe says they are served well at room temp so you could prepare ahead. I wouldn't know what they tasted like at that temperature because none of them had a chance to cool that long. :)

I have been wanting to make some oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies so that is on this weekends agenda as well as getting started on painting the guest room! I think I will make the cookies first so I can motivate myself with the cookies to paint the room!

Makes Me Feel Smart...

Can you spot the misspelled word?

Someone needs to use the spell check!