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.

Soft

I washed my makeup brushes yesterday.
When I used them today they were so soft that it was amazing. Soft enough that I felt inspired to take a picture of them. I had forgotten what a difference it made to use a very, very, clean, clean brush.
I've had these for years but they're still top-notch and the only way to really enjoy putting on makeup, for me.
The two red ones are from Smashbox and I can recommend Smashbox makeup brushes with all my heart.
The tiny fat one is the Kabuki brush from Bare Escentuals. It's a tremendous pleasure to use anything from their company.

Fun in the Garage on a Hot day

The cool cement floor on our bare feet soothes us when it is too hot outside. Today I walked out into the garage because I heard a lot of laughter, this is what I saw. The boys were scootering. Way too fun! It's almost an indulgence to have an 'extra' room like this garage.

What I Saw Today

Nap on a hot Spring day

I had a fan going in the room so he'd stay nice and cool. Something so luxurious about napping in a cool room on a hot day! I think he also enjoys the soft sheets I have on my bed here.

10 Things List

10 Good things to include in a day:

1. Educate yourself, even if just a little (start reading a book, write, language cds, school, classes)
2. Exercise (swim, bike, walk)
3. Tidy up your space, organize your stuff (laundry, dishes, scrub something, garden, box up something, make your bed, put stuff in cabinets)
4. Create something, do something artsy (take a photo, write, journal your thoughts)
5. Use and enjoy your 5 senses (I can't emphasize this point enough! This is what life is made of! So cook and make it look pretty on your plate, have a small glass of wine, listen to music and love it, rub your feet together under your bedsheets, bury your nose in your clean, warm laundry)
6. Be pleasant (to your spouse, children, friends)
7. Plan (make lists, think about tomorrow, look at your calendar)
8. Communicate (call your great-grandma, talk to your kids, your spouse, friends. Let them know what's on your radar, tell them what is new for you and then turn it around and listen to them-- what are they thinking about? it's a 2-way activity.)
9. Cover your bases (drink 8 cup-measures of water, get a cup measure out and stand by the sink and do it. You will love me for this! Plus you've got to GET SOME SLEEP)
10. Get some great personal grooming in (get great hair, smart outfit, shiny white teeth)
    

A fox and Sandals and socks

Remember wearing socks with sandals when you were too young to know any different? I love this. We were at a national park and a fox ran right in front of me. A few pics from this weekend.

Swim meet and hanging out with my son

One of the greatest charms of our world

My son and I went to watch a swim meet today and while we were there we saw a young man practicing soccer. He accidentally kicked the ball over the fence and my son was there willing to help return the ball. The young man was so kind and invited my son to play with him, so they kicked the ball to each other a few times.

It is incredibly touching when people show kindness to children, when they show real interest and patience. It happens every now and then and I believe it is one of the greatest charms of our world.

Barber Shop

I love the contrast between the poster of Muhammad Ali throwing a punch (back wall) against the sweetness of the ice cream cone printed smock my son is wearing.

The barber shop had 5 stalls and was full of big men talking and laughing with each other. Having them welcome the tiny boy for a haircut was tremendously cute. It was like seeing the little tiger at the zoo playing with the big cats.

This was the very first time he did not cry while having his hair cut. It probably had something to do with the Tom and Jerry cartoon the barber switched on for him.