Today is Jellybean's first birthday, so I thought I'd share a couple of things I found for her special day.

1. Child's First Birthday Signature and Fingerprint Tree 11 x 14 via Your Keepsake Co.

This shop sells the cutest personalized items. I had already purchased my daughter's first Christmas ornament from here and then I fell in love this fingerprint tree. It's really lovely and such a sweet idea to fill the tree with the fingerprints and signatures of all of the people who love her. The shop owner was kind enough to change the font to one I liked more. I think it will look wonderful framed in her room.

2. Sweet Red Headed Doll via Heart Felts.

My daughter already owns two other dolls from Heart Felts (One is named Sunshine and the other is named Lolli, imagine that.) and I purchased two others besides for nieces. These are the most adorable dolls! She owns a blond and a brunette. Jellybean is a red head, so I had to get one that looked like her, right?

I wish I had the imagination and energy to throw a birthday party for my daughter like the one I found here. Unfortunately, I don't. We plan to celebrate with mini cupcakes on two different weekends with both sides of the family. She won't get any decorations, but she'll get two parties, so I guess that makes up for it. :)

Have a Happy Day and Weekend!

P.S. I thought I'd let you know that I have received no compensation from the shops that I highlight. I just love their stuff. :)

Embrace the Camera- She's turning One

Self Portrait at 34.5 weeks with Jellybean

Jellybean will be an entire year old tomorrow. The only thing I knew about my little girl when I took this photo was that she was mine. Now her personality is blooming and I know so much more about my sweet, happy, scrappy, funny little girl...and I can't believe that she's mine.

Take some time to join with Emily and her crew in embracing the camera!

Have a Happy Day!

Easy Weeknight Pesto and Tomato Pizza

So, last week I blogged about an easy weeknight pasta. This week, I'm blogging about a ridiculously easy weeknight pizza. (hmmm, I guess we like Italian.)

This recipe can be whatever you want it to be. If you like making pizza dough and have a great recipe, you could do that. If you have a great pesto recipe and you prefer to use it, then go for it. This time I opted for store bought crust and pesto. I like to keep it simple and it still tastes surprisingly good.

Okay, so here's the plan:

Assemble your ingredients.

- One "Pre-fabricated" Pizza Crust (I use Boboli. We decided that the original crust was superior to the thin crust.)
- Vegetable Oil Cooking Spray
- Pesto (I use Buitoni, though any pesto will do.)
- One Package Low Moisture Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
- 2 Roma Tomatoes
- Fresh Basil

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.
Place pizza on a cookie sheet and spray it with vegetable oil.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
While pizza is baking, slice your tomatoes and basil.

Remove from oven, smother with about 3 generous Tbs. of Pesto, leaving at least a 1/2" border.

Sprinkle a generous amount of cheese.

Top with your tomatoes.

Bake for an additional 5 minutes, until the cheese is nice and melty.
Remove from oven and sprinkle with basil.

Slice it up, pile it on a plate and enjoy!

15 minutes of work and does my test subject like it?

Yep. :) (I should note that he is almost three and becoming a major food critic.)

Well, there you have it. Ridiculously easy and rather tasty pesto and tomato pizza.

Have a Happy Day!

Inevitability:

Noun. The quality or state of being impossible to avoid or evade.
As in the inevitability of living with a one year old...

Here's sweet jellybean playing:

Here's the room less than 20 minutes later:

I once read a blog post showing a similar mess and stating that it was a "happy mess". There is comfort in semantics.

I accept the inevitable mess now, knowing I'll miss it when she is grown and gone.

Have a Happy Day!

Just Listed: Bobby Pins

I'm expanding the shop with more clip styles and custom designs. Over the weekend I listed two sets of sweet bobby pins.

The birds from the park flew in for this Little Bird bobby pin set

and bright Red Hearts are perfect all year round

Stop by the shop and check them out!

Have a Happy Day!

Friday *Night* Finds

This is a bit late in the evening....yes, my typical Friday night consists of putting the kids to bed and then "computing" with my husband on the couch while we watch TV. "Computing" consists of both my husband and myself working on our respective laptops. It's less depressing than it sounds. Sometimes we even instant message each other. heh. ;)

Every Friday, I plan to post my favorite finds from the week. This week I was inspired by some fun items that will help you find some peace and calm this weekend...

Start a warm bath and erase the stressful week with this delicious body scrub:

Coconut Lemon Sugar Scrub via Terra Verde

Slip on these gorgeous slippers:

Purple Heart on Grey Turkish House Slippers via Smiling Knitting

and curl up with a good book while you sip this relaxing tea blend:

Organic Sleep Well Tea via Treehouse Herbs

The top print pictured is Relax via FotoFoto.

Have a Happy, Relaxing Day and Weekend!

Embrace The Camera- The Boy and His Dad

Lazy Sunday afternoon, watching TV and cuddling with his Daddy.

I love that I have a cuddly boy that likes to sit and stroke our hair. I'll be so sad when he outgrows this stage. I also love that I have a wonderful husband that enjoys cuddling with his children.

Jellybean was watching TV, too, but she is NOT a cuddler.

Join Emily and her crew in Embracing the Camera every Thursday!

Have a Happy Day!

Easy Weeknight Pasta

I enjoy cooking, but lately I'm finding that I only have about 30 mins to prepare meals in the evening. So I thought I'd document one of our easy weeknight meals. This is fast, easy and can be pulled together from just the pantry if necessary.

Pull out the ingredients:

2 1/2 cups dry pasta (any shape, though we've decided that we love rotini)
One can of diced tomatoes (S&W brand is highly recommended)
Extra virgin olive oil
5 or 6 cloves fresh garlic (freeze dried garlic from Penzey's is also awesome)
A bunch of fresh basil (or dry from the pantry)
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
Salt
Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

Tonight I didn't have almost any fresh ingredients so I used just what I had in the pantry. I love that I can pull it together with stuff I always have in the cupboard.

Method:

Bring water to a boil, pour in pasta, set timer

Normally, while water is coming to a boil and pasta is starting to cook, you'd go ahead and mince up the garlic and a few basil stems. Today I'm using freeze dried garlic and dry basil, so instead I take the time to contemplate the beautiful calendar that my friend sent me for my birthday...

Now heat up a saute pan to medium heat, pour in two large tablespoons of oil. Once oil is hot, put in garlic, red pepper, basil stems (or a little bit of dry basil) and about a 1/2 tsp of salt. Swirl it around until fragrant.

Add tomatoes, more basil and crank the heat to high. Stir constantly until liquid cooks down a bit.

By now your pasta is probably done. Drain it and add it to your sauce.

Now for the best part. This can be skipped if you don't have it in the fridge, but I like to always have a little in there. Parmesan cheese! Make sure it is actually parmigiano reggiano and not the stuff in the green can. (ick). Pour it in, don't be shy. I put in at least a couple of handfuls. :)

Mix it in and you are done!

Slap it into a bowl (as you can see, this is a week night, I didn't have time to make the bowl pretty) and enjoy!

If you get a smile like this, you'll know you did it right.

Yum!

Have a Happy Day!

The Taylor

I completed another custom design in the last week and thought I'd share. My good friend approached me with the idea of a ladybug clip for her daughter. I got busy researching ladybugs and thinking about what I'd like to create. Did you know that soaking in a warm tub is extremely conducive to creativity? Here's what I came up with:

I especially love the ladybug in the center that is ready to take flight. I had so much fun researching ladybugs and trying to figure out how to make a design that would work in counted cross stitch. I only wish I had a picture of my sketch book to put up here. There were so many failed ladybug attempts. It is surprisingly hard to take something from your head and put it to paper. It is especially hard when that vision must be created out of little x's that will fit into the boxes on a sheet of graph paper.

Here are the cross stitched ladybugs stitched to felt and mounted:

I should note that this is my first snap clip design. I was initially reticent to use snap clips, but I think they will be a nice addition to the shop. I already have another design using them and one more on the way for this next week!

Can't wait to show you what I've been working on this weekend, but I'll have to wait until the beginning of next week. Fun things ahead!

Have a Happy Day!

Embrace The Camera- Feet!

When I was in junior high and high school I had a thing about getting my feet in photos. I was a bonafide band geek (and whatever the equivalent term is for those in orchestra). I went on several band and orchestra tours and have photo after photo of signs, manholes and national monuments with only my feet in the photo.

One rainy day this week, I decided to resurrect the art of the foot photo with my children.

Look he's a toe curler just like his mama!

I may or may not have bribed my two year old with a chocolate cookie so that he would stay still and keep his feet in a least one photo. He may or may not have started crying because he wanted his socks back on.

Socks back on, lounging on the couch. I ROCK those Nike ankle socks!

The entire venture of trying to get everyone's feet in a photo may or may not have ended in tears and total exasperation by everyone involved.

hmmm, looking back on it, I'm not quite sure if it was worth it or not....

Oh well. Join us in embracing the camera and Have a Happy Day!!