Banana Bread Redemption

Oh! I just have to take a moment to pat myself on the back after the horribly unattractive Happy Wednesday purple cake experience.

I heard angels singing when it came out of the oven. Yeah, I know, banana bread is easy. Just let me have my moment.

My go-to cookbook. My mom gave it to me when I left the nest, and I've been using it ever since. Just for basics, ya know. The picture doesn't do any justice to how wretched the poor thing looks. Falling apart... crinkled from water...stained with grease... and dusted with flour. Kinda like me after I've been in the kitchen. Wink.

Bake Me a Cake

Ay-yay-yay. Yet another snowfall.
Headed out this morning to bring Little Miss to school. Trudged through the snow to the car. Brushed the snow off the car. Scrape-scrape-scraped the ice off the windows. Got in the car. Turned around to drive out of the driveway. Realized my wiper blades were frozen. Got out of the car and bang-bang-banged on them to un-freeze them. Got back in the car. My car was stuck. Thought maybe I was being tested for patience. Reverse. Forward. Reverse. Turn the wheel. Forward. Repeat. Still stuck. Remembered the road to school is currently covered by the Minnesota River and the detour to get to school is a minimum maintenance road with a sign that says: travel at your own risk. Realized I wasn't being tested for patience, I was being told to stay home. I'd rather be stuck in my own driveway than curvy, hilly, cliffy, unplowed, gravel country road. Trudged back in the house. Baked a cake.

We discussed that when baking a cake, you don't have to roll it, or pat it, and you certainly don't have to mark it with a B. I was informed that ours would say Happy Wednesday, and it would be purple.

Chief Egg Cracker

Chief Spatula Licker (in our house we believe that the benefits outweigh the risks).

She had to pick purple. Purple is my least favorite color in America. It made me sick just to look at it. Although I could have been getting sick from: A. licking cake batter, or B. eating too much frosting as I was mixing it. You never know.  

In the name of all things ugly. Who wants a piece'a that, huh?

Decided to leave out the Wednesday. Clearly, I cut the piping bag hole too big, and besides our Happy Wednesday cake would be out of style by Thursday.



I know. It tasted delish though, really. Looks aren't everything. Don't judge a book by it's cover. Beauty is only skin/frosting deep.

Do you know what my Sweet Little Ladybug said to me when we were done? She said:
"Thanks, Mom. For doing that with me."

Now that is sweet.

Happy Monday, y'all

It's a shameful confession, but stay-at-home-moms secretly get a little bit of a kick out of Mondays.
But there's a whole world full of you people feeling like updating your status to "UGH" today.
I know you hate to see your weekend end. I know you might still be hungover (you? no!).  I know you hate to have to get back to boring old business... the traffic, that cranky boss, your reheated lunch.
Just take it easy. Keep in mind that there are people in this world who would give anything to get back boring old business. I think about those people in Japan, or Libya. I think about the patients in a children's hospital. I think about my friend with a broken heart. I think about my neighbors who are at their loved one's bedside waiting to hear her last breath.
So if you have nothing to complain about, then don't.

Forever29

So just a few short hours after proclaiming that I needed some new shades, word on the street spread that Forever21 was giving 100% of proceeds for the day to relief efforts in Japan. Now friends, if we can justify a shopping experience with a cause for humanity and put four wheels on it, I will always hop on that bus (uh, yeah, a bus to Shallow Town, I know, I know).
I didn't have it in me to shop the clothes*, because you know, there's a lot of like that happens between 21 and 29, so I stocked up on accessories. Lots of them! Including 4 sets o' shades, $5.80 a piece (uh, yeah, hopefully their good deed toward Japan will momentarily compensate for their manufacturing methods that allow them to sell a pair of sunglasses for that cheap).
Yes, I purchased the snazzy pink ones. I was inspired by the bold choice of little Miss Hot Lips in my previous post. Hooray!

*If they would have named it something like ForeverMe, or ForeverLovely, or maybe just Forever, I pro'lly would have shopped the clothes. I hope to never get too schlumpy, but I strongly believe in age appropriateness. They have a sister store called Heritage81, which I have no problem shopping. It's the year I was born. And it will always be the year I was born, and that makes me feel okay about buying clothes there. Whoa! Asterisks are fun.

Fab Foto Friday



Remind me I need to get some new sunglasses. I buy a few cheapos every year and end up losing/breaking/scratching them, one by one, til I'm left with three quarters of a pair. The sun is coming back to us, and I find myself squinting, and we all know that squinting causes wrinkles. I'm almost 30 you know. Wink. (Uh, does winking cause wrinkles?)

And what's with those bad boys on Hot Lips there?  Were they protective eyewear or were they for real? Love it!

Luck o' the Black Beans

Happy St. Patricks Day.
Miss 5 year old came home from school expecting to have had "the leprechaun" sneak into our house, mess everything up, and leave a bunch of gold coins.
I'm cool with the imaginary holiday characters thing. So much fun for the wee ones. And if I were a day care provider, or a teacher, or had 8 children, or was of Irish decent, I'd be all over it. But I'm not, and I'm just not doin' the leprechaun thing.
I felt like a mean mommy (only for  a split) and then I realized she's not disappointed in me, she's disappointed in the leprechaun. Phew.
So we ate black bean burgers, and passed off the guac' as being Irish enough cuz it's green.  I sold them on the key lime pie too, which didn't exactly turn out green, but it was derived from green items, and it was in a green pie plate. De-lish, by the way, it turned out just like the picture on the recipe...


That's the picture from the recipe.

And now I just remembered that it's in the frige. I hate when I remember there's pie in my house, it makes me unable to focus on my tasks.
What was I saying?

Desperate Housewife

At the risk of sounding dreadfully domestic, I'm going to share with you my deep desire to use my clothesline. Still too cold, but this pic I stumbled upon this morn' reminded me of happier laundry days to come...

I can almost smell it! 

(the laundry, not the dog) 

Tap, tap, tap, is this thing on?

The following is a speech given through my imaginary megaphone...

Is she making an impression on you? Does she have serious duds? Impossibly beautiful hair? Flawless face? A big fat car parked in front of a big fat house filled with big fat furniture, but not a smidge of fat anywhere else? OH! She must be so happy with all of that pretty stuff and all of that gorgeous perfection.

Well that's just gross.
Don't be impressed by the fance and schmance.
You want to know who makes an impression on me? The mom who giggles with her grown daughters.  The old lady jumping off the diving board. The grandma at lunch with her teenage grand kids. The wife of 50 years.
Be impressed by the life and love.

Wouldn't your days be just a little more meaningful if you spent your time showing off for your children instead of your neighbors?  Or maybe put your effort into making someone smile instead of making them jealous? Fall asleep at night being proud of the person you are, instead of the stuff you have.

Woodland Creatures

To avoid our own case of March Madness we decided to get the heck outta the house this weekend and take advantage of some of the awesome state/county parks in our area.

Sophie pulled out her binocs to "study" every feather, turd, and stick she stumbled upon.

The sound of that trickling water was music to our Minnesotan ears.



The happiest dog in the world.

One big fat hike back up to the truck which meant we didn't have to feel so big and fat later that night when we gorged at our fave Mexican establishment.

What?



Fab Foto Friday: Brrr

March is the time of year when we Minnesotans begin to question our sanity. We have to have a winter hobby that involves snow or frozen water. It makes the season pleasant. We wear huge coats and fluffy hats. It makes us warm. We hear that howling wind outside and stick something in the oven or the crock pot. It makes us feel better. We say the words Spring, or sick of winter,  or not much longer, to every person we meet. It helps us not kill each other.  We cling desperately to the 7 day forecast which always shows warmer temps on days 5, 6, and 7. It takes the edge off.

Bon Apetit

I watched Julie and Julia last week (yes, I'm about a year and a half behind in the world of cinema). Ever since, this is what the inside of my brain looks like...

1950 Roadmaster Estate Wagon. I could SO pull this off.

Again, with the stripes, I know. Skirts by Anne M Cramer... if you are wearing socks, prepare to have them knocked off.

While I'm not quite inspired to "master the art of French cooking" I am fully inclined to outfit my entire kitchen with robins egg blue, vintage green, anything enamel, and anything French, This lovely little ditty is available from VintageJunkyStyle on Etsy.

Of course. Check out this handy tip for softening butter in a jiff. Maybe if I weren't so busy imagining myself driving around in my woody wagon while wearing my striped skirt, I would remember to take the butter out ahead of time.



Ask my favorite antique shopping pals what I hate to run into while at our favorite shops, sales, or flea markets, and they'll rattle off this list:

• taxidermy
• fur coats
• old wigs
• teddy bears
• stuffed toys

And last but not least

• dolls, doll parts, doll heads

Basically anything fury, hairy, or with fake eyes will give me a shiver in my neck.
One day I was at my favorite junk joint and I saw this precious little face staring at me and I was struck by the fact that she didn't make me nauseous. Her tag said $1.50 and it was store-wide half price day, so I handed 3 quarters to the lady who rang me up. She looked at me like I was crazy, and she held it with the tips of her thumb and index finger as she put it in my bag.
I don't need to do too much market research to discover that this little doll head is quite and ineffective marketing tool. But this morning she caught the attention of a fellow MN Etsian, Beth from one30oneDesign and look what she did...

And then this listing popped up from one of my favorite vintage shops, The Fancy Lamb...

So THERE. Show some love for the creepy doll head... because she's watching you... (insert neck shiver)

RocketGirl

I just realized that my FIVE year old is already smarter than me.  If we were lines on a graph chart, my line would be a slow and steady incline, and her line would be a rocket to the moon.
She carries around a little backpack full of common sense. I can trust her judgements. I can rest assure that if she does make a poor choice she is prepared to face the consequence. I don't have to be, and I won't ever have to be that mom who gives a slight turn of her head, raises her eyebrows, and looks at her daughter out of the corner of her eye and doubts her daughters decisions.
She's on her own journey. All I will do is help her prepare. I will just keep helping her fill that little backpack, with common sense and experience and maybe some of those fun packets of dehydrated food. It's her job to draw the map. My head will be full of gray hair, and my face wrinkled from worry, but she will make it the moon.

Back in the Saddle

Waking up from the nap that was February and back in the blogging saddle.

Yee to the Haw!