Halloween Weekend

The eve before Halloween this is what I was doing:

baking.baking.baking.

I got the recipe for the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins here

I spend a lot of time in my kitchen, so I grabbed a shot of it for you with my Halloween towels out on display.

Caramel Apples (or at least I tried):
My caramel apple attempt didn't turn out too well. I was off to a great start (above) but right about the time the the caramel got to the soft ball temp. Sonja started crying and even though I was rocking her in her bassinet with my foot while stirring, I couldn't stand to see her upset so I pulled the caramel off the burner a degree too soon and the caramel never set up right (even though it looked okay at first). Going to turn the mess ups (below) into apple pie.

Halloween Night:

I'm supposed to be a painting by Sylvia Ji, she does lovely Dia de lod Muertos painting of Women, her older work is just beautiful women, but her more recent stuff is mostly all Day of the Dead style women. I love it.

Husband was also supposed to be a skeleton- he did his own make up... also, little Sonja Cake was a glow in the dark skeleton. She's crying here cause Daddy is so scary looking.

Our Pumpkins and tin lanterns I made.

I love Halloween; tastey desserts, craft projects, dress up, and more!

Hope everyone else had a Happy Halloween too!!

P.S. Momma Monday post later today/night.

Functional Friday No. 13

Re-usable Water Bottles.

I love my water bottles (the red one is my sisters though, and my green one is hiding in my room; not the fridge). They are great for staying hydrated and for not toxifiying my water, like plastic does. I buy Sigg brand, because all things Swiss are great. And because they are super cute designs. And because they're well made. The water bottle on the left is from Cost Plus, World Market. I got it as a gift but you can see the design is wearing off and the wide mouth makes it kind of hard to drink from. The glass bottle on the left is a re-used juice bottle (I only buy food in glass containers- when possible). I soaked it in bleach water to remove the smell of the cranberry juice and any remaining sugars in order to prevent mold and such. The point is, you can use a recycled glass bottle or metal one, but reusing a water bottle instead of a plastic one is better for everyone!

p.s. I custom made one for Husband at Cafe Press

Happy Functional Friday!

"Kiss Me, Kiss Me, I'm Alison"

It took me a good hour to track this bad boy down: We had it on our netflix but thanks to the very "long wait" I had to go and find it. I figured buying it was the best choice, since I'm sure we'll want to watch it again next year. I had to call 3 Targets and check in at a Best Buy before finding it. They had it at the Target on 7th Street on Bell, but it was the LAST one when I called, I had them set it aside.

While walking back to the Electronics department, I saw this:
WTF?! Target?? It's not even Halloween yet, let alone Thanksgiving!!

Enjoy the next few days of October, because the Christmas Season is about to be shoved down your throat :)

Happy Thursday.

Tumblr

Also, just so you all know I also have a tumblr

click here

I mostly use it to notify followers there of new posts here, but every once and a while I post or reblog something over there. follow me if you're into it.

Happy Tuesday.

New Obsession:

Get into it:

http://cupcakesoftheday.tumblr.com/

Desert of the Week

Can you guess what I made?

This week my "Dessert" is Banana Bread. I had 3 over ripened bananas hanging out in my produce baskets for over a week now. Since I wasn't going to eat them like they were, I decided to make banana bread. I know it's not exactly a dessert, but it's really sweet and I'm trying to start losing some of this baby weight.

Banana Bread Recipe- Modifications: 1 cup unbleached white flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour, if you know me, you know I like to sneak in healthier ingredients when possible.

Momma Monday no. 11

Cupcake is officially one month old. Where did the time go?? I love that she's more durable now, she holds her head up nicely when you have her in your arms. She's getting more consistent with pooping, not a whole lot of poopy diapers in the middle of the night (way easier to change potty ones- since we're using cloth). She's awake more. She's starting to fit into the cute clothes everyone got her. She smiles (not always at something- more just gassy smirks). I can run errands with her, she does well in the car, most of the time.

I went back to teaching my classes last week. They were good, I missed my students. She had to have a bottle on Monday though- my milk, in glass, not formula. Husband said she did NOT want it. Also, he gave her one on Wednesday. I don't pump, though, I manually express the milk. It's a lot like milking a cow and a whole lot less painful than a manual pump. I wake up engorged most mornings so I express about 2 ounces. She only drinks about an ounce and a half at a time- at least from the bottles. I hope I can continue to express manually as she gets bigger, I'm so anti-pump. It's just so awkward hooking myself up to a machine and the manual one suctions so painfully. Although, our sweet friends did offer to loan me theirs (after we sterilize it of course). I'm going to take them up on the offer since it will provide a nice back up if I can't express much milk in the future.

Our weekends are always the busiest. Saturday we went grocery shopping and did some housework. My parents came over and hung out. My mom and I got pedicures while My Dad and Husband watched Sonja. I got super cute Halloween toes, using my orange nail polish, with spider webs.

Sunday, yesterday, was a busy day. We went to a "Pumpkin Patch" that was set up in the field of a local church. There was also a small craft fair there. One of the vendors asked us if lil' Sonja would model one of their halloween tutus. She was asleep for the experience but still it was super cute!

After the pumpkin patch, where I bought a tiny, medium and tall pumpkins to represent our family, a few close friends came over to hang out. Nate hadn't met Sonja-Cake yet so he came with Jordan and Beth and lil Thompson to see her and we went to Oregano's for lunch. Sooo good. I love their Oregano's Favorite Salad and Bowl-O-Pasta and especially their specialty drink the Bellini. It had been a long ten months without drinking and I indulged in getting myself one.

Thankfully, Sonja slept through the whole lunch so I was able to drink it and wait a good hour or so before having to feed her. (Alcohol transfers to breast milk quickly, they recommend drinking 2 hours before having to feed a nursing child) Nate was also kind enough to pick up the check for the whole occasion, and then him and Husband came home and "smoked" (in quotes because apparently you don't inhale??) some celebratory cigars. The latter I was not as excited about. It was great to hang out with a fellow momma and baby and I know Husband enjoyed his guy time.

Overall, a really good week.

Hope you have a great one, starting with a wonderful Momma Monday!

Candle Re-Making

What you'll need:

Old candles (save the part that is left after the wick burns out)

Stove top

Old pot or pan (once you use it for the wax you won't want to use it again for food)

Jars from around your house

*New candle wicks - available at your local craft store (I got mine from Michaels 6 wicks for $3)

In the photo above you can see I've already made several candles and a mess. Below is the explanation step by step for my last candle, mexican pumpkin spice candle left overs from Cost Plus, World Market

Step 1: Heat pan to 1 or 2 on the burner (very low heat) if the wax starts smoking turn it down, smoke from wax can be caustic and gave me a little headache. Make sure to open windows or have a hood fan going so you don't breathe any smoke.

Here are the wicks I bought:

Step 2: Place the wick inside of the jar of your choice.

Step 3: Once the wick is inserted and all the wax is melted carefully pour the wax into the jar. Put something under the jar in case you spill, wax is not fun to clean up!

Step 4: Make sure the wick is placed in the center, move if necessary. For large jars you might need 2 or more wicks to make sure the candle burns properly. Allow to cool. sometimes candles do sink in around the wick as they cool. If this is going to bother you, do the candle in layers and allow for each layer to cool before adding another layer.
Happy Wax Recycling and Candle Re-Making!

Fall-O-Ween Cookies

So, I ordered these super cute cookie cutters weeks ago. I knew I wanted to make Halloween cookies this year, and following my 1 dessert a week project. I decided to make cookies this weekend with the help of my sister.

Ta-Da:

Cute right?!

cookie cutters from amazon.com (click here)

cookie recipe from realsimple.com (modified; 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 1/2 cup white flour, also instead of sugar; I always use sucanat)

frosting recipe (click here modified; raw unprocessed honey instead of corn syrup and we used vanilla almond milk instead of milk- it also required a bit more milk than they suggest, but I didn't measure how much more)

Well, Happy Fall-O-Ween Baking and Halloween Preparing!

Nails for Halloween!

While at Target last night I peeked down the nail polish aisle- something I never do. I don't like to paint my nails because most nail polishes are so toxic. Most have formaldehyde and other seriously bad ingredients in them. But I really wanted a bright orange polish for Halloween and I found this color; Fresh Squeezed.

"Since 2006, OPI has reformulated its entire line of Nail Lacquers, Nail Treatments, and Nail Hardeners to eliminate DBP (dibutyl phthalate) and Toluene.

Formaldehyde has never been an ingredient in OPI Nail Lacquers or Nail Treatments." - OPI.com

Since this brand is not terrible for the environment, I didn't feel too bad buying it.

What do you think??

Momma Monday no. 10

Week 3 of real mommy-ness.

It's been a really good week. Sonja started being more awake this week. We had a rough night on Tuesday night though. She did NOT want to fall asleep after her 3am feeding. Finally, I nursed her from the side lying down and when she fell asleep during her feeding (like she always does) I didn't move her, I just slept next to her. I hate co-sleeping out of the close and secure sleeper, but when you're just sooo tired and they're finally asleep, you just have to go with it. Plus I know I'm not going to roll over on her or anything, I just worry about her suffocating on the sheets... anyway, she was fine and well rested.

I also wanted to share some photos of my post pregnancy body. I think it's strange to post belly photos up until the pregnancy but then not after. Our bodies go through amazing changes during pregnancy and I think post-pregnancy body documentation is just as important. Here is my progress so far:

This was taken at about 2 and 1/2 weeks post delivery. As you can tell from the splatters on the mirror I haven't been doing much house work. Anyway, after 2 weeks I think I'm also back to "normal" proportions. Although, I do have some weight on my upper thighs I'd like to loose. I gained a total of 46lbs during the pregnancy and I don't have a scale so I'm not sure how much I've lost yet. Thankfully, I didn't get any stretch marks on my belly. However, I did notice some red streaking on the underside of my boobs. I guess I wasn't oiling or preparing that area well enough and my milk came in quick! In any case, I'm thankful for my body returning to it's normal appearance. I know a lot of it has to do with the fact I'm still burning so many calories breastfeeding.

Also, I got my regular belly button ring back in!!

Husband told me it's kind of trashy to have a belly button ring and be a mom, but I just couldn't stand the though of having a gross scar on my belly button. So glad I can have this back in. Also, just for the record my belly button never popped. It stayed an inie the whole pregnancy, only when I was pushing during labor did it almost pop to an outie.

I haven't been doing much house work, mostly because I'm lazy. But also, because, I haven't been able to do much while holding a newborn. This changes everything! I'm able to wear her and fold laundry, or cook myself lunch! I Love IT!

Today is my first day back at work (only teaching for an hour and a half). I'll let you know how that and the rest of my first week back goes, next Monday. I think that's all of my mommy updates for the week.

Happy Momma Monday! hope you're having a great day!

Baby's Room Before and After

So, I'm still working on Sonja's room; but here's what it looked like before and "after" with a little explanation.

From inside the room looking towards the door:

Baby's room had 2 closets, but the 2nd one was a makeshift mess, we built a wall there and made the closet go back to the other room from which it originally belonged. we did do it ourselves (with a friend) but I didn't take notes or make a step by step- so in short; framed out 2x4"s, filled it with insulation and then put dry wall up, I plastered it with joint compound and then over that with Venetian plaster. I still need to install a baseboard and paint the closet with the chalk paint.

From the doorway:

Notice my new trash cans from Cost Plus World Market? One is for the trash diaper stuff and one is for the laundry diaper stuff.

From the bed looking towards the door:

I have to print a photo for that frame, and that black rectange thing is her portable play pin.

You might have noticed there is no crib in her room... she co-sleeps with us and has a little secure sleeper in the middle of the bed for my mental health. When she's a little older and can roll over, we'll have to discontinue using it but for now I'm sleeping well knowing we won't roll over on her, but can check on her without even having to get up. Also, I chose the colors when we still didn't know the gender, I really liked the color scheme and figured I could add more girly colors later.

Functional Friday No. 11

Rain Barrels!

So, I was going to post this weeks ago, but I went into labor instead.

Anyway, here it is now; something you might not think as being functional in the desert but actually is really funtional; rain barrels. It doesn't rain here much, so a huge investment into a rain barrel might sound silly, but when it rains it pours. Literally. And because, it rains so much so quickly, the ground has little time to absorb it. It just rests on the surface slowly seeping in, and evaporating quicker. So, I've found a little secret to keeping the rain water around longer. I set up buckets when it rains and I use that water for non-edible plants. I don't use it for the edible plants because 1. the bucket is plastic. 2. roof particulates get in the water, and I don't know if they're safe to touch my food. I would use this rain water if I was using a wooden rain barrel (not a plastic one). Anyway, just a thought for you next time it rains in the desert. A few extra FREE gallons of water is nice for your plants.

Happy Functional Friday!

Butternut Squash Soup with Spinach Sandwich

Butternut Squash Soup (adapted from Rachel Ray)

Ingredients:

1 Potato (quartered)

1 Butternut Squash (peeled, seeded and chopped)

1 Onion (peeled and quartered)

1 quart of vegetable broth

Almond Milk

Salt

Pepper

Bake the potato, squash, and onion at 350 degrees (F) for 45 minutes, or until soft. Pour the vegetable broth into a large pot, add the potato, squash, and onion, and bring to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour the mixture into a blender, and blend. Add the almond milk in order to attain desired thickness.

Spinach Tomato Sandwich

Ingredients:

1 Tomato

Baby spinach leaves

Whole wheat bread

Olive oil

Sherry

2 cloves of garlic (diced)

Slice the tomato and bake at 350 degrees (F) until the skin wrinkles and the slices weep. Meanwhile, toast the bread, and combine the sherry, olive oil, and garlic. Place one slice of tomato on bread, cover with spinach, then place another tomato slice on top. Drizzle with the dressing.

I Couldn't Resist!

This weekend, while grocery shopping I found this!

If you know anything about me it should be this, I love pumpkin! pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice coffee, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin scones, pumpkin seeds and so on. How could I NOT try this?! plus after 9 months of sobriety I thought I deserved a drink.

I enjoyed my Pumpkin ale with a hearty butternut squash soup made from scratch and a spinach, tomato, homemade vinaigrette dressing sandwich. The first sip was just like normal beer- which I'm not a fan of, but as I continued drinking the bottle, a stronger hint of pumpkin evolved.

Happy Wednesday!

(bowl pictured made by yours truely and durable white plate from Cost Plus World Market)