the fountain

What's in your bag?

10 Things in my bag

1. sketch book and pencil
2. Juicy Couture wallet
3. old school composition book
4. electronic dictionary
5. ipod touch
6. Purell mini
7. back up plastic sunglasses
   
8. snacks for me and kids: bbq chips, 5th ave. candy bar, butter snaps pretzels
9. book on astrology
10. lip gloss
    

Silhouette of a boy

Ahem, did I mention I'm a sucker for a quiz?

What Your Fridge Says About You

You like to be surrounded by things you love. You aren't exactly greedy, but you can be materialistic at times. You tend to be a fairly thrifty person. You splurge occasionally, but you're mostly a saver. You are a very adventurous person. You love to try new things, and you get bored very easily. You are responsible, together, and mature. You act like an adult, even when you don't feel like it. You are likely to be married - and very busy.

What Do the Contents of Your Refrigerator Say About You?

I don't know why I love these. But I love these. Honestly, what does your refrigerator say about you? Why do I believe these? Titter, grin.

My dinner: Thank you Universe

Spinach Salad fresh from my neighbor's garden. (My neighbor came over with a bag of freshly picked salad greens today!!!!!)

A good life has a garden in it somewhere, even if it belongs to your neighbor.

A good life includes the experience of eating food straight from the stem.

Thank you Universe!!

My snack

cheap instant coffee

keebler caramel filled cookies

I'm a sucker for a quiz

I \\ Your Blogging Type is Logical and Principled

You like to voice your well thought out opinions on your blog. And if someone doesn't what you write, you really don't care! Serious and blunt, sometimes people take your blog the wrong way. But you're a true and loyal friend to those who truly get you.

What's Your Blogging Personality?



I got this from a link on Natalie Norton's Blog (link called Bayley's Blogette).

What it's all about

This is a quote from John Edwards' wife who has 2 kids and terminal cancer. Edwards was the fellow who was running for president as a Democrat and dropped out to let Hillary and Obama go at it.

"I feel a real sense of every minute counts. It's not just when you're on stage with bright lights on you. It's in your kitchen and carpool and office, all of those places, that the value of your life is measured."

A cute kids meal

There is something so happy about this and I LOVE it.

wink!

On a walk

A small creek sounds so quiet. But it's just loud enough so you notice it.

A wonderful smell!

I cut this open and a wonderful, perfect watermelon smell came up and surprised me. I don't know what I was expecting but it had been so long since I'd had fresh watermelon that it was a real pleasure.

The smell filled the whole room, so when the kids walked in they instantly knew there was a watermelon somewhere.

Amazing.

I guess I've always just bought pre-packaged slices of watermelon, with no charm.

Now I know!

Dinner: Tonno tuna, oh. my. god.

Tonno tuna. Really NOTHING like regular tuna. A different category altogether. Please try!

Good seasons and their cruet- makes me happy every time I taste it.

This was my dinner tonight:
boiled red potatoes
spring greens salad
tonno tuna on the side

DELISH

I love this guy

Dinner: Thai Fried Rice

I made this!! I am so proud of myself. It looked pretty and tasted wonderful. I had 2 helpings. AND my kids liked it!
Ingredients:
diced pineapple (1 cup)
cooked jasmine rice (3 cups)
oil
1-3 tbs stock
green onions (3, chopped)
garlic (2 cloves diced)
1 Thai green chili (whoa mamma, be careful! if you don't like it spicy then take the seeds out)
1 green bell pepper chopped
peas frozen(1/2 cup)
1 egg
2 tbsp. fish sauce (get it at the supermarket)
2 tsp. curry
1 tsp. coriander

Fry the onions, garlic, bell pepper, Thai pepper in the oil until soft. Add rice, peas, stock, fish sauce, pineapple and spices. When looking good (everything incorporated together) crack the egg into a little hole in the middle of the rice. Mix and cook until egg is fully cooked.

Garnish with sliced cucumber and lime wedges with a bunch of cilantro over the top.

I think you will luv this!

I love my kids

Yum

This is my dinner on a hot afternoon.
Salad topped with:
sunflower seeds
sliced beets
sweet corn
raisins
Good Seasons Italian dressing (homemade in the cruet they sell at the store. I used red vinegar and grape seed oil).

With a bottle of:
Samuel Adams Summer Ale

(note the weed whacker and mower in the background that are going to be used later...but not just now.)

Under the bridge

What I had for dinner tonight

Try this for dinner:

1. Cook some Zatarain's Spanish Rice (super easy! but you'll need a can of diced tomato)
2. Brown a pound of ground turkey and add the following spices:

• onion (dried or fresh, either is ok)

• garlic (I use this great pre-diced garlic in a huge jar from "Christopher Ranch")
  

• chili powder (a capful)

• oregano (a capful)

• cumin (a capful)

• sea salt to taste

• tabasco (we like it SPICY so we use a LOT of tabasco)
  

• water (half a cup. this helps incorporate the spices into the meat mixture)
  

Cook until the meat is covered in the spices and the water has evaporated.

Grate some cheese over your tortilla, put some Spanish rice on it and some spicy ground turkey- Voila, you'll be eating what I had for dinner tonight.

Ideally this would be great with some beer and a salad. I recommend a beer I was just introduced to called "ROGUE Dead Guy Ale." It has a funny skeleton guy on it's label and a high alcohol content so beware.

Amelie: One person can change your life forever

If you don't own this you should. It's a French film and a story about a girl who finds a small treasure from the past and goes on a quest to fix other peoples lives (and in the process, her own).
But it's also a visual feast. And a perfect picture of finding joy in the everyday objects, friendships and occurrences of life.

Lowbrow? but Gooood

Just stopped down at the corner store and grabbed these. I plan on using a glass. But this is where I'm at tonight and it's quite fun. A very light beer, I've never had it before actually. And Miss Vicki's Simply Sea Salt chips go great with the Coors beer.

The Car Wash

Saw a beautiful tree in bloom on my way to the car wash today.

I took a pic of the rinse cycle we were in. I've always been slightly scared of car washes. I think the worst that could happen is you just have to exit the car when the water is running and get wet, right? But that never seems to happen, it's just worse in my mind than in reality. But I certainly always feel very alive when I'm in a car wash, for sure.

3 Inspiring books and interiors

OK, I love to look at interiors of homes. I suppose because I spend so much time inside my own home at this stage of my life that interiors are on my radar quite often. Having a peaceful and beautiful environment is vital for me. My house, however NEVER has looked like the pictures in these books. But something about them is so inspiring and charming! And they always, always give me that good, special indescribable feeling inside when I look at the pages. I'm not sure what the point is behind loving something so badly and then NEVER doing it, but it sure is a pleasure to drool over the pages in these books. When it comes down to it I love looking at interiors like this; yet to maintain a house like this with all my children running around with bbq sauce and cookie dough on their hands would shorten my life, so alas I gravitate toward the warm and darker colors.

These three books have captured my attention and my heart. I'm drooling specifically over:

1. Rachel Ashwell's "The Shabby Chic Home" (First 3 pics above of some my favorite images from this book, look at that bed on the porch with the umbrella and the linens and the sunlight and Australian fern in back!?!?!?!!!!! I want to be there.)
2. Designing Women by Margaret Russell (which features Celia Tejada-- google her!)
3. Sensual Living by Claire Lloyd (Text in this book is tough --read: do not love the text AT ALL) but images are very, very inspiring. Book is arranged by the 5 senses-- right down my alley.

10 favorite smells

10 Favorite Smells:

1. blooming trees
2. river water
3. warm breeze
4. cut grass
5. clean laundry
6. pages of a new book
7. baby's neck and head
8. wood floors just washed with Murphy's Oil Soap
9. coconut suntan oil
10. sappy, piney, cold smell of mountain air
    

Children's Rooms by Joanna Copestick

These are snapshots of the pages of this incredibly inspiring book by Joanna Copestick (Conran Octopus published this book.) It is called Children's Rooms: Practical Design Solutions for Ages 0-10 (Conran Octopus Interiors S.) Anything by Conran always turns out amazing.

This book has inspired me to keep it simple in the kids rooms and in the house. There is a clean simplicity and charm that this book transmits and I can recommend it with all my heart and soul.

Check it out on Amazon.com where you can now buy it in paperback (much more affordable than hardback).

Mother's Day

A sleeping toddler!
A leisurely afternoon meal at a fantastic Thai restaurant!
The sight and smell of excellent roses!
What more could I ask for?

We went out on our bicycles and visited the zoo. Then we stopped at a Thai restaurant on the way home to have some dinner. My youngest fell asleep in my arms as we were ordering the food, which was a tremendous stroke of good luck since he's 2 and really isn't into the pleasure of leisurely eating and chatting over a good meal. He loses his patience and I never get to eat before he's ready to leave. So I wrapped him in our jackets and he slept soundly all through the meal.
This was a pic of my plate, Thai fried rice. I could not have been more pleased. I ate lots of appetizers (which I didn't photo because they were GONE so fast) and also some curry and tofu. So good.
I was so amazed by these brownish roses. They're beautiful. I don't think the photo really captures the color though, here they look more peachy. But they are really a brownish color.

Amazing! Thanks for a great weekend guys!

Cooked Play Dough Recipe

I've had this book for almost 15 years and it inspires me, when I need some inspiration, to do cool new things with my little kids.
The recipe for this cooked play dough is so good that I never buy real Playdoh at the store. Real Playdoh is just terrible compared to the consistency of this home made stuff.

Cooked Play Dough:

1 cup flour
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
Food coloring

1. Mix dry ingredients together in a sauce pan.
2. Add wet ingredients and mix together.
3. Cook over a low to medium flame.
4. Stir constantly to prevent scorching, until the mixture forms into a ball. (No more than five minutes).
5. Knead until smooth.
6. Store in a sealed plastic container or refrigerate.


As your children get older you can make larger batches with this recipe I got from my oldest friend-

Kickin' Play Dough for big kids:
4 cups flour
2 cups salt
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup cream of tartar
4 teaspoons food coloring
4 cups of water

The best thing is the play dough is warm when you give it to the kids and they always look surprised when they touch it. It's a really pleasant feeling dough. Do enjoy!

We LUV these books!

Leslie Patricelli is the author of these books. We'd like to own them all but only have these 3. Yummy Yucky, Quiet Loud, Baby Happy Baby Sad.
She has a few more titles and they all can be purchased on Amazon.com
They're made of really heavy paper and they're called 'board books.' They're like cardboard. This is great because the toddlers are really rough on things.