October 26, 2012 - admin

Big brother Baxter

All day yesterday Baxter moped around the house. He would flop himself down at my feet and let out a big sigh, or just sit and stare at me with sad doggy eyes. I actually texted Chris at work to ask if he had fed Baxter before leaving for work because I thought for sure Baxter was trying to communicate something important to me! “Baxter, bark twice if your daddy didn’t feed you today”! No response, he just sat and stared. Didn’t even play with his toys!

Today it finally dawned on me that in all the hullaboo surrounding our new family addition (Charlotte, of course) I forgot about our first born dog’s birthday! Baxter turned 2 yesterday – EEK! I feel bad that we let it pass by, but he knows we love him regardless. Extra apple slices for you today buddy!

You can read about last year’s celebration HERE and about how Baxter dog became a member of the family HERE.

Baxter is a very good dog. I can’t say that he meets all of my ‘dog requirements’ (If you’re really nosy, they are listed in the link above) but he certainly tries and by the time he started barking and shedding a bit I was already hooked – there was no going back.

Baxter is a very good big brother to Charlotte. Very protective and super calm around her, though he is always on high alert and nervous that every squirrel, mail man, and leaf blowing by is trying to break into our house and he must bark loud enough to alert everyone on the street.

“What’s that smell? I thought I was the only mess maker in the house”.

Happy Birthday Baxter – We are so glad you’re part of our family!

October 25, 2012 - admin 3 Comments

DIY {Princess Tiara}

I remember using this technique for a Miss America halloween costume I made when I was younger.

Supplies:

– Headband (I used a narrow one, but a wide headband would work fine for a giant crown)

– Tinfoil (I used maybe a foot, if that)

– Inspiration photo

First, I went on the interwebs to find my inspiration piece.

This one looked nice and gaudy and seemed simply enough to replicate.

Tear a few 2 inch-ish wide strips of tinfoil and begin wrapping the headband. There really is no technique – just wrap the tinfoil at an angle so you can keep it sort of smooth, but you can’t really mess it up. Be sure to wrap the tinfoil with the shiny side OUT throughout this project – you want your crown to be as blingy as possible!

It took me only one of the long strips to wrap the entire headband. It should look something like this when you’re done:

Once you have your headband wrapped, take the remaining strips of tinfoil and begin twisting them into long strands. Again, there’s really no technique to this, just begin rolling and twisting at an angle to get your pieces nice and long.

After I made a few I lined them up by order of size because the design on my inspiration tiara had larger pieces in the middle and they got smaller as they moved out towards the sides. Begin shaping some pieces and attaching them to your headband – tiara base.

I just wrapped the ends of each tinfoil strand around the headband and then wrapped another small piece of tinfoil around the wrapped ends to secure. I might add some glue later and smooth out some of the ‘joints’, but it’s fairly sturdy as it is.

OOOWeeeeee, that’s FANCY!

Then, give yourself some giant poufy hair worthy of a princess and pop on your fab tiara. TADA!!!

Yes I am still in my jammies – don’t hate. I’m jus sayin’.

October 24, 2012 - admin 2 Comments

Lessons in the kitchen {Cajun Chicken Pasta}

This recipe is awesome: Cajun Chicken Pasta.

It’s one of The Pioneer Woman’s “Tasty Kitchen” recipes and can be found HERE. The photo above is hers too {gotta give credit where credit is due!} I made this for dinner last night and learned a few things along the way.

1. My 2 month old can sleep through not one, but TWO smoke alarms going off in the house. Didn’t even stir.I actually had to hover and look for breathing after I took care of the ‘smoke’ situation because she was in such a deep sleep.

2. White wine vinegar is NOT the same as white wine {even though they share 2/3 of the same words!!!} – who knew?!

Just sayin’.

October 22, 2011 - admin

Fall at the Farm

My friend Tiffany and sister Melissa both brought their boys to ‘Papa and Honey’s farm’ to run off some energy and play with the animals. I used the opportunity to practice my photography skills on my nephews (even some in full manual mode!) and wrangled Baxter into a photo shoot for something coming up next week… here’s a bit of a sneak peek: