Where O' where did the week go!?!?!?

I think I spent most of the week thinking Tuesday was really Wednesday. So when Thursday came along I was pretty bummed it wasn't Friday.

Real work pretty much sucked out all the creative-ness outa me. *sigh* Thus lack of content here.

I am "in my office" aka in the basement printing up some orders. I have my "assistant" helping me. He likes to watch & wait for the paper to come out.

We have a big day tomorrow. A Derby party & a Margarita party. I promise to have some good photos. At least from the Derby ... can't promise photos in focus from the Margarita party! ;)

Meghan will be there. As you can tell....Charlie will be happy about that!
Nighty night!

Simple Mother's Day Gift

I think it's fun to put a few things together to create a special gift. Makes it a little more personal.

Why not tuck some personal notecards into a cute pot holder from Anthropologie? Or wrap them up in a cute dish towel?

Mothers Day is May 9th. Thats in 11 days. Just so you know.

How did your morning start???

This was mine.
Happy Tuesday y'all!

Ruthie's Shower

We sure did have a good time showering Mrs Ruthie! The hostesses did a fabulous job with the food & wine & desserts. My friend Erin made a mean fruit tart. She needs to quit her day job and just bake.

Ruthie was presented with the Denver Tribe's patchwork knit blanket. The tradition is each girl knits a square and our friend Kathleen puts it all together to make a purty baby blanket. Every tribe member's 1st born receives a blanket. The blanket is lookin' good this year, ladies!!! (I should really show you a pictures of Charlie's precious knit "blanket!" It kinda looks like the state of Nebraska. hee hee)

That's Townes - one of the newer members of the group. He's just about as precious as they get, don't you think!

The countdown is on - 1 month until we meet Baby Boy Beugg. CAN'T WAIT!

You should make this for dinner

I could see this being a regular post on my blog. Recipes that I've found that were delicious & easy & should be shared. They do have to hit on a few things that I look for in finding good recipes.

• Fairly healthy - we're not trying to be fat-free or vegan at our house but we definitely want to make an effort to develop healthy eating habits.

• Super easy/not time consuming - Jeff & I both work full time and have 2 boys under 3. I don't think I need to explain this section much further.

• Can be made w/ most of what's in my pantry - I like to try new things but don't always want to shell out money for weird ingredients. It just depends.

• Passes the FELLA test. (aka Jeff & Charlie like it) - If they like it I'm happy. If it passes their test then I put it on an index card to file away so that when those days come where I'm blank w/ what to make I go look at those cards.

My box of parchment paper has been in my drawer so long I think they've changed the packaging on the new ones in the store. This was a good excuse to use it. I need to get more fish into our diet and I found this one in Martha's Everyday Food magazine. This pic is from Martha's website. And believe it or not - your food really comes out looking this pretty.

This was super easy and fun to make. I think I was drinking a glass of wine, playing cars with Charlie & putting this together all at the same time. My kinda cooking! (on some nights anyways)

I actually cooked this longer (20 min) b/c I like my salmon cooked thru. The beans came out a little dry - so I think next time I'll blanch them like the other readers said. (I really like reader comments on recipes - it usually helps)

The flavor really was wonderful. The salmon was perfect - even the beans were tasty despite being a little rough. Put this one in your file.

Matchy-Matchy

I am headed to a fun baby shower this weekend. It's for our good friend Ruthie who is having a B-O-Y in late May. I had worked on her shower invitation and wanted to hook her up with some matching Thank You notes. You know a new mama with her first baby on the way has A LOT of thank-you's to write.

I will bring MY CAMERA to the shower & take some pics. It should be a hoot.

OH PEAS! OH PEAS!

We have a very sweet cousin who lives in Southern California and has a knack for picking out the SWEETEST and most perfect books for Benson & Charlie. Just the other day a package arrived that said "HAPPY SPRING!" on the outside of it. (ahem - if I'd had my camera I'd taken a pic of it) ;) But no more excuses - I've got the camera back so things are gonna change around here.

Inside were several fabulous books...but the one that has risen to the tippy-top is LMNO PEAS.
If you have a wee one who likes books & like to recite the alphabet... this is a MUST-HAVE for your bookshelf. If you need to find a gift for that niece or nefew.... this is perfect!

Charlie and I spent a good 1/2 hour pouring over LMNO PEAS! The illustrations are precious and just make you giggle. There is so much to look at you can spend hours pouring over all the little things the peas are doing. Our favorite part is to try & find Miss Lady Bug who is hidden on every page. We flip thru the pages and Charlie will scream... "B! Thats for Ben-Ben!" or "J!!! Thats for Daddy!"

The best thing about it is that you get to snuggle on the couch with your wee one and listen to their little minds just go, go, go!

Warning!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The camera is READY! I just have to get my keister over to Mike's Camera and pick it up. Which you think would be super simple & easy to do. Lord!

This blog is going to get a boost for sure. You might actually get to see some things I've been working on. That would be a novel concept.

I am up early this morning to get the early morning creative juices. Usually Charlie is up by now, so my time is limited. (he is the only child i know that likes to get up at 5:30am...SERIOUSLY!)  I finished some work and then saw these. These file into my "if I had a million dollars" category. Which we all could.... did you see how much the lottery is today????

GO BUY A TICKET!!!!

Then if you win, I'll take these in a 5.5 or 6 thank you very much. They will be perfff for my Sa-Sa's bachy weekend.

Our little helper

We are making progress in the kitchen as you can see. Charlie was glued to Steve's hip as he helped install the faucet, disposal, new light & fan in Ben's room. It made for a busy Saturday. My PHP to-do list is piling up.

• Custom wedding invite for Sa-Sa & Andrew

• Custom wedding invite for Robin & Chris

• fun little details (that I can't mention because I know she reads this) for Sa-sa's bachy weekend

• Pink Hippo little details like stickers and cards - sometimes it's hard to remember to make things for myself!!!

• Charlie's 3rd birthday invitations

• I know I'm missing some other stuff.....brain to full to remember it all!

We're still looking for volunteers to help strip the cabinets & paint them pretty white.

COUNTERTOPS!!!!!!!!!

I really didn't think this day would come. The doorbell rang at 7:30am this morning...and Sal was here with the countertops!!!!! It's killing me that I don't have my camera here to document this glorious day. (who starts a blog and then her camera goes into the shop???) But the countertops are in and they are going to drill the holes for the pretty faucet with sprayer & soap dispenser. We are officially fancy.

Steve comes tomorrow to hook up the sink/faucet plus a number of other things we've been patiently waiting to update. A fan for Ben's room so he doesn't overheat this summer, a new schoolhouse light pendant for the kitchen, and a brand spanking new disposal. It's crazy that I get excited about this stuff.

In all this anticipation, I've updated our kitchen vision a tiny bit. (Like I don't have anything else to do.) This tool keeps me focused so that I don't drive my hubbin crazy.

I think this is the shot in the arm we needed to start cranking on those butter yellow cabinets and turning them into pretty white ones. EEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

That little face

My friend Lisa took some shots of little Benson this past weekend. Here are two of my favs. He does his own hair. That camera has GOT to get outta the shop ASAP. He's growing too fast. 8 mos & counting!

Capturing memories

I do love to take photos and always have the best intentions of making scrapbooks. I have a love hate relationship with that as it takes so much energy & time & prepping. Scrapbooks seem better aimed at capturing those big memories like birthdays and holiday and such. I like to remember the little things, too.

A good friend told me about this 10 year journal. I know, I know - a journal sounds just as overwhelming as scrapbooking. But this journal is aimed at you writing down only a few sentences a day to capture the essence of what went on. Not a novel. Then, you can look back on say April 14th and see what you did each year.

For example: The kitchen is about to be turned into a construction zone so we opted to go out to dinner. We hit up a local pizza joint. I was 1/2 way into my glass of wine when I turned to watch Ben throw up his 5:00 bottle. All 6 oz of it! Jeff turned to the waitress and asked for our food "togo!" And off we went!

Who doesn't want to remember a night like that? ;)

I wish I would have had one when Jeff & I were dating and could look back to the days we got engaged and married and found out we were expecting. We started our journal about 2 months before Charlie was born. It's already filling up.

You can order yours here.

I think this is a wonderful gift to an engaged couple or new family. It's a realistic way to capture the little things you don't want to forget. Like the other day, when Charlie decided that he was going to put himself to bed. He said "don't follow me, I can do it all by myself" and walked to his room. Big boy! He's changing so fast. I had to write that down to keep forever.

Saving the environment from our showers!

I was helping a friend with a shower invite. Pink, floral, & fun. She provided me with the copy & I whipped up the design. I noticed at the bottom of the copy sheet was a simple yet amazing idea that needed to be shared.

PLEASE USE THE ENCLOSED GIFT TAG INSTEAD OF WRAPPING PAPER.

This is a great idea on so many levels. 1-You'll save money not buying wrapping paper. 2-You'll save the environment by not using the paper. 3-You'll keep the shower from lasting 3+ hours by having to unwrap every single gift in front of everyone. (don't get me wrong - I love that part but a shower doesn't need to last 3+ hours) This gift take will make the shower more like a show in tell.

Jennie (the one w/ the bright idea) gave me a few of her creative tags to show. She whipped these up for 65 guests. I think they turned out wonderfully.

SOOOOO HAPPY!!!

WHY???

Over the past few years most of my favorite magazines have disappeared.

COOKIE MAGAZINE

WONDER TIME

and my super favorite

D O M I N O

I truly miss them showing up in my mailbox and waiting for that Saturday morning to pour over them with my coffee while cozied up on the couch. *sigh*

I have stumbled upon something very exciting! An on-line version of a home decor magazine that is from some of the peeps who used to work @ Domino. It's called LONNY. This is a product of Michelle Adams (an alumni of Domino magazine) and Patrick Cline (a photographer). It takes a little getting used to flipping the pages with a mouse. You can even click on items on the pages and be sent to their homepages for purchase. (dangerous!) Apparently there are a few back issues - so get ready to procrastinate while you get sucked into the beautiful homes.

I MADE THIS & it was YUMMY!!!!!!

My least favorite thing to do is figure out what to make for dinner. It drives me nuts. Trying to find something that sounds good, my family will eat, won't take more than 45 min, that I might have a few of the ingredients on hand, and it may actually be good for us is like the most painful task on the planet.

But then I found her. The Pioneer Woman. I don't know what I'd do w/o her. I've made several of her meals and they aren't crazy hard to do and they really fill you up! PLUS - of course I would make a meal from a woman who takes photos of the ingredients. That specific ingredient really cought my eye. ;)  I love an excuse to go get a bottle of wine that isn't to calm the madness that is my life.

Anyhoo - you need to make this pasta primavera. It was super easy & super delish. It does call for lots of cream & half'n half. I opted for the cream and substituted the half for some of Charlie's 2% milk. It still tasted delish. It was also worth it to spring for the fresh basil & the baby porta bella mushrooms. Everyone ate it up. We have enough for dinner tonight. (and I can finish that bottle of wine!)

YIPPEE!

You can go to her website & get this recipe and all sorts of other fun things. Don't get me started about how fabulous she is, runs this blog/company, takes photographs & home-schools her children. We just won't go there because I really love her food too much.

Rats

You would think spending money would be so much fun!!!! We are currently trying to update our kitchen and it's been quite the 1 step forward 5 steps back kind of thing. I'd posted earlier in the week about our sink and how we'd been patiently waiting on it so they could get moving on the countertops. Well, it FINALLY arrived. YIPPEE!!! But all this time, we hadn't heard a peep about our faucet. Hmmmmm....

I got a text from my mom (isn't she so savy!) to call her w/ details on the faucet last night. I knew what this meant. Mom said that they finally checked back and said the sink that I want won't even be in the warehouse until May 15. That's just the warehouse! UGH.......

Needless to say - I am headed to Lowes today to see what they have. Keep your fingers crossed that a beautiful bridge faucet in polished chrome is just sitting on the shelf waiting for me to come and buy it and take it home. (along w/ a soap dispenser, push button for the disposal, new disposal and a ceiling fan for Benson's room).

Here are a few BEFORE pics of our kitchen. And a few work in progress photos. And here we go again - 1 step forward, who knows how many steps back.


Don't ya just love the turquoise wall paper? And the lovely matching border on the ceiling?
Not to mention the faux countertops & butter yellow cabinets.

I have an amazing hubbin. He was really been hacking away at this kitchen. He peeled off all the wallpaper. Now we aimed at getting new countertops installed, painting the cabinets white (nightmare), and installing new faucet/disposal and a new light fixture. 

FINGERS CROSSED!!!!

Coordinating Thank You's

We love love love custom work around here. It's really fun to bring to life the "ideas & visions" of my good friends. I worked on a shower invite recently and the hostess wanted to have some matching thank you cards made to give to the new mama. It's so fun to be so coordinated. I wish I was like that in all parts of my life. (ha)

Thank you note cards make for great hostess gifts as well as adding that little something to a gift you're already giving. Not to mention the fact that they are something you can definitely use!

Still waiting....

I really wish this sink would hurry up & get here.
It's already 2 weeks past due. Grrrr.....

This sink.
In black.
Please show up tomorrow so we can
get going on the new countertops.

Pretty please?
Thank you.

Sa-Sa's bachelorette!

I am planning, along with Sa-Sa's besty, Lisa, a bachelorette party in San Diego, California for my sister. It'll be 12 girls in a house on a beach. I won't go into great detail yet because most of it's a SURPRISE!!! I did just send out the official invitations to this fun event and wanted to share. We're a silly group - so please don't be offended by our sinata-pinata!

The design is a little ode to Palm Springs mod & a little traditional with the fonts. Combine that w/ a request for some undies for the pinata & you've got yourself a fun party!

Now to pack...

GET THIS BOOK, y'all!

I would imagine that it would be VERY exciting to walk into a book store big or small & see your work up on the shelf. That is exactly what Anna Mitchael did and she took this pic! I got to know Anna while working together in Denver. You can learn a ton about Anna here.

I have ordered my book & I can't wait to read it. Not that I have time to read this weekend. Did you see my list of TO DOS? I might save it for San Diego girls getaway weekend in May. That's 55 days away.... not that I'm counting. ;)

I always appreciate the support that my family, friends, coworkers, neighbors have done to pass the word about my work. It feels really good to do that for Anna. If the book is 1/2 as fabulous as she is, it's going to be a page turner.

My to do list....

is a wee bit longer than I think the weekend is. I try to make a list so that I can attempt to accomplish a few things over the course of the 2 days. It tends to get derailed by play dates or too short or too long of naps. (or skipped altogether) The days are getting longer and weather is getting nicer so that helps.

The plan is get some easter eggs dyed & hidden & found. Work on a few design projects & a few house projects. (aka the never ending kitchen remodel) OH - and squeeze in a quick trip up into the mountains to spend some time w/ friends. I'm sure I can do it all. I'll let you know on Monday.

This photo made me giggle.
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!

I could love this...

Ohhh....the new BEAN French Press Coffee Maker. It comes in so many yummy colors. You can find yours here. This gets me excited for the warm summer mornings that I can sit out on my patio and relax while flipping thru a magazine I've saved and have some delicious coffee. Most likely the reality will be that I'll sit down for 20 seconds and then have to either tell Charlie to stop digging up the flowers in the backyard or pick up a toy that Ben has dropped for fun for the 100th time. BUT I'll be happy in the backyard with coffee. It's the little things I say.

Announcing......

.....cute babies!!!! Pink HIppo Prints has fun announcements to help you share the news about your new little addition. If you see something blue - we can turn it pink. Any announcement can be adjusted to either have a picture incorporated or complement one slipped inside the envelope.