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Hop on over to Sew, Mama, Sew they are featuring my tutorial for this ruffled apron and have got lot’s of great gift-making idea’s. They even have some free downloadable gift tags (which are so so adorable!)

Happy Thursday!

xoxo

Have you guys seen all the great advent calendars that people are making out there??  It occurred to me, oh on about November 30th, that a homemade advent calendar just wasn’t gonna happen this year. Again. We picked up this German one at Cost Plus and it seems to be doing the job just fine. Henry gets so excited to open up a window every night before he goes to bed. A couple of years ago, I saw the most dreamy stocking garland kit in the Magic Cabin catalog, and every year I tell myself I’m going to make my own. I simply adore Amanda’s – and kick myself every time I see how lovely hers turned out. There’s always next year. And the year after that. And the year after that.
We ran out of ornament hangers with about 40 ornaments left, so we’ve still go to put those up. I found these awesome  over-sized polka-dot jingle bell ornaments at Michael’s and picked up a few red & green ones. I love how limey the green is. The tree is the most random hodge-podge of ornaments, it’s quite hilarious actually. We have gorgeous ones that we picked up on a vacation to Paris in 2002, ones from Boston & New York, ones from our families, etc.,. I let Henry pick out his own ornament at the store last night, which was a long stringy snowman with striped legs (which both fell off by the time we got home…where is the glue gun packed???)

Speaking of glue guns… (they are on my brain since I happened upon mine while  packing up our garage for the move and now- well everything in our life is in desperate need of said glue gun: the wooden wheels of Henry’s Christmas train came off,  the leg-less snowman, etc.,.) Anyway what has happened to glue guns anyway?? Does anyone even use them anymore?  I’m stoked to get mine out and go crazy with it and these foam cones.

There is a new magazine that has just launched called "Living Crafts" and it’s wonderful. I’m digging these crochet crowns (not that I know how to crochet or anything fancy like that), but you should check it out. They do 4 issues per year and have really good stuff in there. Speaking of good stuff (I amaze myself with how good I am at transitioning to new subjects) I saw this and nearly had a heart-attack. Totally adorable and if Henry’s Christmas present wasn’t already purchased… (all he wanted was that train table, sheesh!) Maybe next year if this baby ends up being a girl.

Tonight is a long overdue girls night with one of my old-time gal-pals and I’m so excited.

xoxo

Wow a whole week already. Thanksgiving was so great. Mom was in town so it was just the 4 of us. Turkey for days… which turned into turkey/croissant sandwiches and then turkey soup. That’s why you buy a 17 lb turkey for 4 people…eek! It’s the gift that keeps on giving!  We decided that "Christmastime" officially starts as soon as the Thanksgiving fork gets put down. So bring on the festivities! The tree was meant to go up last weekend, but it just so happened that it was also the last weekend we had before we had to get everything out of our old apartment. A day spent hauling everything into a storage unit, another day (okay 2) cleaning, painting, spackling the garage where Chris had previously cut out a huge hole out of the drywall so our car would fit. It’s such a relief to finally have everything out, but now- eighyeiyei- there are boxes and stuff. Everywhere. I can’t even think about getting the Christmas stuff out until this place gets cleaned up. I did manage to get my paperwhite bulbs forced (if you will)/planted today. I just love the smell of paperwhites at Christmastime. I’m a week or so late planting them, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed they bloom in time. I was reading in this months Martha that you can ‘stunt their growth’ (it sounds so cruel, no?) so I did a little research and found this. All ya need to do is give ’em a little booz. I’m actually going to try it. The only part about paperwhites that is a little frustrating is once they start blooming they tend to get so top-heavy and fall over, so I’ll let you know how this works out.

Thanks for all the well wishes for the pregnancy. I can’t believe this is my 3rd pregnancy in the last year. 3? Really? Who would’ve thought. I actually miscarried a few days before Thanksgiving last year and it seems so surreal to be here again. Has it really been a year? Miscarrying twice in a row makes for a very cautious mama & papa if you know what I mean. It’s sad to say, but Chris and I have hardly talked about it until just recently. It feels kind of taboo,  you don’t want to get excited, because well, you’ve been there before. But we get to find out what we are having in the next week or two, so we are excited to see another ultrasound just to confirm that the little ‘computer’ is growing and what not. (By the way, Henry is obsessed with watching his ‘turkey-head movie’ as he calls it.)  I’m due the beginning of May, which means another May baby for us,  which we are thrilled about. I actually broke out ye olde maternity pants for the first time on Monday. I’m sure it had absolutely nothing to do with the aforementioned 17lb turkey extravaganza.

Oh a great day of thrifting today means I’ll be whipping up some  super cool aprons for the shop next week (boxes, Christmas stuff, sewing…what??? earth to Morgan…) I’ve just added a handful of baby bibs now, you can check them out here.

Happy Wednesday!!

(Just give it a minute to load and then the video won’t be choppy.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8291053912444064019&hl=en

Let it be known: I love Spaghetti Bolognese. I think it’s one of my top 5 favorite foods of all time. I’ve made spaghetti with a regular sauce before, but I’ve never searched out a bolognese recipe, until now. Richard & Betsey were over for one last hurrah on Friday before that baby of theirs decides to come and we decided to make said ‘Spag Bol’ (as the Aussies call it, according to Em.) What’s the difference between bolognese & meat sauce you ask? From what I understand (and correct me if I’m wrong) is that Bolognese simmers for several hours and is typically made with wine. Also, Italian sauces are composed of little or no tomato sauce.  I love this dish so much, I really didn’t care how long it would take. I just wanted to find an authentic recipe. So I searched & searched & searched and finally found one that looked pretty delish (I had to convert it from grams to ounces- I took that as a good sign. LOL!) and so we gave it a whirl. I made some changes (like omitting chicken livers-egads!) as well as a few other items, but this recipe was really good. While this isn’t a difficult recipe by any means, it really should simmer for a few hours. You could probably put it in a crock pot on low once you get to that point in the directions. Anyway, it’s delish- give it a try next time you’ve got a hankering for some Spag Bol! It’s a great recipe to prepare ahead of time.

Spaghetti Bolognese
4 oz lean ground pork
12 oz lean ground beef
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 C chopped carrot
1/2 C chopped celery
4 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 C red or white wine (we used a dry sherry)
2 C beef stock
1 3/4 lb of peeled tomato’s, quartered*
2 Tbsp tomato paste**
3 Tbsp. cream (optional)
2 bay leaves
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 pkg cooked spaghetti

Directions:
Sauté the onion, carrot and celery over low heat in oil (or oil and butter); sweat the vegetables until they colour slightly; add the garlic, stiring well with a wooden spoon. Add the ground meat and cook over low heat, breaking the meat up with a fork. Season with salt and pepper; deglaze
with the white or red wine; increase the heat and cook until the wine
has evaporated. Add the quartered tomatoes and the tomato paste,
thinned with a little tomato juice, water or broth. Season with the bay leaves and combine well. Increase
the heat to medium so that the sauce boils gently; cover the pot and
let simmer for two to three hours, adding more broth as necessary. If
you are using cream, add it an hour before the end of the cooking time;
remove the bay leaves before serving. The cream will tend to cut some
of the tomato’s acidity.

*To peel the tomato’s, we boiled them for about 3-5 minutes and then put them in cold water. The skins will peel off easily this way.

**I was going to omit the tomato paste since I didn’t have any and it only called for 2 Tbsp, but since there isn’t any tomato sauce being added to this recipe, you really should add it (it resulted in a last minute trip to the store, thanks, Chris!)

I also wanted to find a new spinach salad recipe and came across this on Allrecipes. I was drawn to it because the dressing sounded like such an interesting mix of flavors: poppy seeds, toasted sesame seeds, paprika, minced onion. You get where I’m going here. It’d be perfect for Thanksgiving dinner, too! I had a wedge of parmesan so I added a few thin slies to the salad and it was yummy!

Spinach Salad
1 Tbsp. butter
3/4 C blanched & slivered
almonds
1 lb spinach, torn into bite sized pieces
1 C dried cranberries
1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1 Tbsp poppy seeds
1/2 C sugar
2 tsp minced onion
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 C white wine vinegar
1/4 C cider vinegar
1/2 C vegetable oil
Fresh Parmesan (optional)

Directions:
In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add almonds and until lightly toasted. Remove and let cool. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds,
sugar, onion, paprika, white wine vinegar, cider vinegar, and vegetable
oil. In a large bowl, combine the spinach with the toasted almonds and cranberries.Toss dressing with  spinach just before serving.

I keep forgetting to mention the most incredible cookie recipe from my brother Matt’s blog. Which, by the way, I never said I wouldn’t add you to my blog, YOU TURKEY!! And just so you know, you’ve officially been added (it sounds like a food blog anyway, LOL!) Matt needs help naming his cookie recipe and if you are the winner, than he’ll actually make you a batch of his scrumptious cookies and send them to you (can I throw some names in the hat, too?) So come on people, show a little

My little turkey has a special Thanksgiving message, so be sure to check back before then!

Bon Appetite!

Almost two weeks in the new place. It’s beginning to feel like home. I think I’ve made 4 different soups in the last 10 days (something about soup, just makes a place feel like home.) I’ll share some recipes soon! Anyway, there are still some boxes, but we are making progress.  Henry was sick the first week we were here, which made for very slow unpacking, as he laid on the couch like a bump on
a log hollering out television demands, for what felt like EVER. I’ve
now caught something miserable and well, now I’m the one shouting out
demands. That kid sure is good with the remote.

We wanted to paint before we moved in, but didn’t get the chance and now, well, I’m not sure that we want to. The walls are this ecru, eggshelly color, and it’s growing on me. I sat on the couch for the first week, just staring at that wall wondering what on earth we were going to put there. There is a rather obnoxious box on the wall smack dab in the center of where the clock is. As a joke, one day Chris hung the clock on it. A little unintended brilliance, don’t you think?  The only thing I’m unsure about is how the  lamp, clock and bathing beauties picture are all the same color. I’m debating on painting the clock, and actually, something freaky happened to the lamp in the move (after many light bulb & outlet changes we can’t get it to turn on) so we may need to just get a new lamp anyway which may solve my decorating woes. But, speaking of bathing beauties: 

This picture hung in Henry’s bathroom for the last 2+ years (he’s got a thing for vintage bathing beauties) but we decided to hang it in the living room. The verdict is still out.

One of my biggest headaches, was what to do with all of my stemware/glassware/dishes. I was reading one of Alicia’s posts thinking, "Yes! I need something just. like. that!!" Then I remembered, I already had something just. like. that. Remember this brilliant $39 find that I got last Nov? Well up until now, it’s been housing my fabric. As much as I adore the armoire, it doesn’t work for fabric storage. That thing became so over-stuffed, so completely difficult to find anything you were looking for, that all the fabric just ended up in these huge piles on the floor, which deep, real deep down inside I know the family secretly loved.

Now, I’m channeling my ‘inner-Alicia’ and have moved the armoire into the kitchen (not far from the bathing beauties)

It makes for a bit of a tight squeeze, as it’s only a few feet from the kitchen table, but for now, it’s really working out great for storage.

My cake stands seem to be much happier, all spread out, lots of room (unlike in their previous life where they were cruel-y stacked and crammed into the tiniest of spaces.)

All in all, we love our new place. Henry slept in his own room (which I have to say doesn’t have anything in it besides the left over boxes that need to be unpacked and a queen size blow up mattress from when Dad stayed the night) for the first time. IN HIS LIFE. He’s co-slept with us since birth, but last night, we thought ‘hey, lets see if he’ll sleep in there.’ And he did. Until four this morning, when we heard the muffled sound: "Papa!…..Papa!!Where are you?" Chris went in, and fell back to sleep too,  which gave sick little me the entire bed. All to myself (how long do you think I can bribe Henry to wake up & call for his papa every morning at 4 a.m??) 

Against my better judgment, I took Henry down to Disneyland for a few hours (I think the sickness is affecting my brain cells) to meet up with his Grandma & Grandpa who are in town. All the Christmas stuff is up, and I cannot lie- it’s fab.u.lous!
It was all pink and orange and wonderful. I came home and was getting Henry out of the car and gathering all our stuff from the day when I  walked across the street and not 10 seconds later heard a loud crash. I turned my head to discover that a passing car had completely creamed the entire side of our car. Where we were just standing. 15 seconds earlier. Scary. I holler out to Chris "get over there before that guy takes off!" But he couldn’t. His car looked worse than ours. Our car is un-drivable and his had to be towed (our tow truck will come in the morning.) I think the guy said he fell asleep at the wheel, which just makes it all the scarier.  I mean, we could have been hit while crossing the street, or while I was getting Henry out. I could care less about the car. Just glad we are all well (cough, cough…well sort of). Happy weekend! Regular blogging has officially been resumed!

xoxo

Tuesday:
"Henry, can you come here & try on your costume so I can see if it’s too big?"
"Tomorrow, Mama…Tomorrow"

Wednesday:
"Henry, it’s tomorrow, can you please come and try this on so I can fix it?"
"It’s too big, Mama, it’s too big. Tomorrow."
At this point, he’s pretty much forced into it and hating every minute of it. It was on & off in 10 seconds.

Thursday:
"Henry…."
"It’s too big, Mama. Too big. Tomorrow"

Friday: Same story as Thursday.

Saturday:
"Okay Henry, it’s ‘tomorrow’ and time for you to come and put your totally awesome Peter Pan costume on"
He won’t budge. There are tears. He won’t go near the thing.

Bribery. Hey, I’m not above it. "Henry if you put this costume on, we’ll get you a special, special treat. A train!" "Okay, Mama" He  practically ran into my arms, in slow motion (imagine if you will), put his arms up for the shirt, put the green tights on and on went the hat. Shoes: check. Done 3 minutes later. On the way to the party he can’t stop talking about his cool red feather in his hat. A $4.00 bribe. Totally worth it. The thing about our little Henry is that he’s not too keen on new things. He doesn’t like new shoes, clothes, etc.,.   He usually needs some gentle nudging (sometimes bribery) and then once he does it, he’s happy as a clam. So glad he did it. He’s carrying a felt satchel that was whipped up about 15 seconds before it was time to go, after realizing we didn’t have anything for him to put his treats in. The other side has a big red felt feather stitched onto it that matches the one on his hat. I’m thinking that treat bags need to be part of every years Halloween costume making. Remember last year? Yeah, I think I’m gonna do it. It’s gonna be tradition.

He had a bit of a fall in the kitchen because the bottom of his little mocassins were too slick.  We threw on two big strips of velcro which did the trick. Until Henry had to walk outside on the carpeted hallway. Each step was like walking on fly paper. Each step was a major effort. It really was quite hilarious. We couldn’t stop laughing and Henry, well he was mildly annoyed about not being able to walk like a normal person. But he was such a sport and loved running around outside for a few hours, playing in the leaves and going trick-or-treating.

Sorry I’ve been so scarce around these parts. We are moving this Saturday.  This is a major, major weight that we’ve been carrying and we are feeling so very grateful to finally have found a place that’s going to work for us. We’ve been looking for over 10 months.  We just got  boxes today and I  have 4 days to pack up our place. That’s gonna be loads of fun. Really. Feel free to come by and help. I know you are all dying too. I promise, I won’t put velcro on the bottom of your shoes.

Happy Halloween!!

xoxo

p.s. So thrilled for the Sox! The best part: getting late night calls from old Boston friends, wanting to share in all the happiness. We miss you guys!!

Our little Halloween party last Friday night was a hoot! I wish I took a picture of the night- but alas, I did not. Too busy playing with kids, eating food and having great visits with friends. I realized that I haven’t really posted any Halloween decorations of our place. We went kind of low key this year.


If you can believe it, we still have 2 bins of Halloween stuff that’s not making it’s way out. I just don’t have it in me. But what I’m liking: The crows. Simple, throw one on a  lamp or on a pumpkin, we’ve got 3-4 in our living room. I’m grooving on them.


I wanted to make something for the kids, as a little party gift that they could take home so I decided to make some bat & pumpkin bean bags. We played a little bean bag game and then they got to choose which one they wanted to take home.

I still haven’t made Henry’s costume yet, that’s gotta happen this week before Saturdays Trunk-or-Treat (no, Henry wasn’t even dressed up for his own Halloween party. I’m hoping he’s not scarred for life.) Anyway, this years costume has lots of green…any ideas?? Fleece: check. Felt: check. Green Tights: I’m in a bit of a panic trying to find these…anywhere I can get them in the greater LA area?

We made a pot of chili, and the recipe was such a cinch. I don’t have a lot of chili-making experience. It has always seemed too time consuming, the kind of thing that took all day to prepare. I found a great recipe on Allrecipes and made it for the first time a few weeks ago and had to make it again for our party. Here’s the recipe:

Chili

• 2 pounds lean ground turkey or beef
• 1 (46 fluid ounce) can tomato juice
• 1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 2 cups canned red beans, drained and rinsed

Directions:

1. 
   Place ground turkey/beef in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat
   until evenly brown. Drain, crumble, and set aside.
2. 
   Add all ingredients to a large kettle. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and
   simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

We topped ours with sour cream, diced onions & cheese.

Anyway, we had a great time and as soon as the last person left, Henry turned to me and said, "Let’s do it again!!!"

I’m sure you’ve been hearing about all the fires here. It’s just awful. I can’t imagine losing everything.
Henry’s been rubbing his eyes alot and I wonder if all the smoke in the
air is starting to affect him. The closest fires to us are in Malibu
and really, it’s not that far away- maybe 20 minutes. I’m not sure what to do for him, besides keeping him inside. Here’s to hoping that the fires start to die down soon! 

Happy Wednesday!

p.s. HOLY CRAP- can you believe the Red Sox?? Well, yes I can. They are brilliant. Unbelievable. Bring on the Rockies!

On Monday we went up to a pumpkin farm in Moorpark. It was overcast and chilly and so very Fall. We loved it, especially  Henry.

My little pumpkin-kisser carried about a dozen pumpkins from the ground onto the bales of hay. Lining them up just so. And then the kissing began. I think he kissed nearly every one.

There were a TON of gourds, everywhere you looked. We had a great day of tractor rides:


Pony rides:


Chickens:


And lot’s of searching for just the right pumpkin:



Henry picked out 2 little gourds and a tiny little pumpkin. And this one, got a great big hug:


We are having a little Halloween party on Friday for some of Henry’s playmates.


While I was sewing the envelopes this morning, Henry said, "I want to sew with you, Mama!" So I put him on my lap and he helped to guide the vellum through. He was so proud of our little invites and carefully put them in our Halloween bucket and proudly carried it around to all the neighbors. He can’t stop talking about the  "Halloweentime" party. I am happy to say that he was just introduced to "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and loves  it (esp. ‘Snoofy’.) It’s one of those moments where I realized I’ve succeeded as a Mother. LOL! 

On Wednesday, my old Boston gal-pal Heidi and I finally made it to the Noah’s  Ark exhibit at The Skirball. It’s a new exhibit that just opened this Summer, but as you can imagine there was a pretty hefty wait to get tickets. Things seemed to have settled down and on Wednesday, there was hardly anyone there. Perfect.


It was really incredible. I mean look at the Zebra. Keyboard mane and all. It’s interactive, so everything is meant to be touched and gently played with. You could spin the back/bum of the zebra in circles. Very cool. It’s not everyday you get to spin a zebra’s bum.


And how about this ‘gator? It was a violin case and the eyes were molded out of a pair of womens black leather gloves.

A noodled porcupine?? Brilliant.

And how about this owl creation??

This elephant was up on the 2nd level of the ark and so Henry & I climbed up this rope wall thing and if you pulled the rope, the elephants nose flew up and make a big "prrrrrrrhhhh!" noise.

This was one of Henry’s favorite parts. On the right side of the ark, you could load the animals onto this conveyor belt and then turn the big steel wheel to make them go up, up, up and when they finally got to the top they dropped down a chute into a basket so you could do it again and again. And again.

One last photo: (maybe)


This was really cool. Henry’s cranking the water pump and as he does, it causes the rain to fall and the ark to rise (he’s holding onto an elephant that he latched onto the second we got there and held until the minute we left.)

The Noah’s ark exhibit is permanent, so if you get a chance, head on over. It’s incredible and  the kids will have a ball. At the Skirball. Muhaha.

Sorry for all the pics! It was really dim in there and so some came out grainy. The Halloween stuff is finally coming out this weekend (I’m so ashamed! LOL)



xoxo