my magical friends

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

look a little blury? i wasn't wearing my glasses when i took this picture and i was SUUUPer sure i nailed it. ha ha!

here are my girlies in their halloween costumes. penelope is a fairy princess and isla is a gnome. on their costumes i made:

isla's hat, skirt, collar, shoes (inherited from p) AND penelope's wings, crown, wand, skirt and leaf belt/wand holder thing. aren't they cute! i will probably post more pictures of them from tonight's festivities tomorrow. we are having dinner with family & friends and then trick or treating. i think it will be great...if i can screw my head on right and get everything done.

i hope you all have a fantastic halloween!

pumpkins!

we skipped the pumpkin patch this year. it almost happened a few times, but the universe, it seems, did not want us to enjoy the pumpkin patch this year. i picked up a few pumpkins super cheap and we got the opportunity to put our mark on them for family night. penelope and i painted ours and bryandid a rad carving... sans the emptying out of the pumpkin, because we're lazy like that. i doubt i will let my kids wield a knife before they are 24, i got my first set of stitches whilst carving a pumpkin and i don't think i would relax enough to let my kids try it any time soon. they turned out cute. penelope drew a smiley face on hers, but because bryan and i weren't done, she kept on going and eventually covered up the smiley face. 

 can you see the smile on the pumpkin?

 this is how our youngest entertained herself. rabid? no, just like spit bubbles.

 hard at work

 and here they are. 

CLOSE UPS:

 penelope's lovely creation

 this one is mine. it was largely done while nursing isla, so....it was really a combined effort.

and bryan wins the aggressive pumpkin award. grr.

weekend eats: pioneer woman carrot cake

for my parents' birthdays (on the 15th and the 25th, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!) i decided to make them a cake while they were in town. my mom said that they would go for a carrot cake or a chocolate cake...i knew that the unselfish thing for me to do would be to make a carrot cake. i generally have the opinion that it's not worth the calories if it's not chocolate...i've been trying to branch out though. this cake was super tasty. it was nice and moist and the frosting was also a win with the pecans. yum. i made it in a 9"x13" cake pan and i decided i would 3/4th the frosting next time around. i also added some nutmeg. here's the recipe:

sigrid's carrot cake (from the pioneer woman)

Ingredients

• FOR CAKE:
• 2 cups Sugar
• 1 cup Vegetable Oil
• 4 whole Eggs
• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground nutmeg* (this is my addition)
• 2 cups Grated Carrots
• _____
• For Icing
• 1 stick Regular Butter, Softened
• 1 package (8 Oz) Cream Cheese
• 1 pound Powdered Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla
• 1 cup Pecans, Chopped Finely

Preparation Instructions

Cake:
Preheat oven to 350F
Mix together the sugar, oil and eggs in a large bowl. In another bowl sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda,(nutmeg) and cinnamon. Add to first mixture and combine. Then add carrots and mix well. Pour into a greased and floured (Baker’s Joyed) pan (bundt, sheet cake, 9 x 13 pyrex) and bake at 350F until done, 25 (sheet cake) to 50 (Bundt pan) minutes, depending on the pan you use.
Cool completely.
Icing:
In larger bowl, cream butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and vanilla and blend, then mix in the nuts. Spread on cooled carrot cake.
Eat. Faint. Repeat as needed.

i also made this soup. it was super good and it was a perfect fall lunch paired with these sliders.

oh hi!
i hope you all had a fabulous weekend. we sure did. my parents and little seester were in town while my dad went to a shrink's conference in la jolla. we went to the zoo and to the pacific ocean...you know, cuz' we live 5 min away. jealous? a spot we really like to go is the torrey pines glider port. it has a nice little deli and you can just sit and look out at the beauty that is the pacific. you also get to watch hang gliders and paragliders take off and float around. it's magical. i didn't get any pictures of these events, because i forgot my camera's memory card... like a champ.

ANYWAY, we had good food and a lot of fun. justin and anna came down to play too. it was just a big party.  one thing i miss about living in UT is being so close to family. family is important to me and i just miss being a short drive away from either my family or bryan's.

WAIT, did i say i didn't have any pictures? HA! punked! here are some from a little trip we took to the playground:

spiders, and witches, and bats! oh, my!

 here's what we've been channeling lately! we've been getting out spooks and trying to get the digs ready for halloween. here's a little printable i made for my house and thought i would share. i had this little orange frame that i wanted to use, but i think i may actually switch to the orange print with a black frame...

click here to download the orange
click here to download the black

weekend eats

this weekend we did a chicago style deep dish pizza. we do a homemade pizza party on most fridays. i really love pizza and i enjoy finding new ways to make it. bryan and i fell in love with chicago style pizza when we were in chicago during our journey home from NYC. we found berkeley pizza here in san diego, which is to die for, but a little challenging to get delivered in north SD. they don't have an eat-in option, so when we get it we need to do curbside delivery downtown. ANYWAY, i thought i would try my hand at making it. this is a third attempt and it's been delicious every time. i have used a skillet and this stoneware to bake it in and i think i might need to get a real deep dish pan if i want to achieve the super flaky pie-like crust that i covet. this is the recipe i use. i don't follow it exactly. the crust is good, it makes tons, so i freeze 1/2 of it for later. i use stewed tomatoes to make my sauce thicker and i also up the spinach.   

i also had some peaches that i needed to use, so i decided to to a rustic peach tart. i used this recipe for the crust and it was amazing! i rolled it out on parchment paper on a large cookie pan.  i spread a very thin layer of cream cheese on the crust up to 3" away from the edge of the crust and then sprinkled that with a tablespoon of sugar. i peeled and sliced my peaches and mixed them with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon flour and 1 tablespoon of almond flour (you could just use 2 tablespoons of flour and omit the alomond flour) and poured them onto the cream cheese. i folded the crust up over the peaches and pinched it into place. for the glaze that i applied before baking i used 2 tablespoons of raspberry jam melted with 1 tablespoon of butter and brushed that over the peaches and crust. i baked it 40min at 400 degrees. it was a win. i can't wait to try it with apples.

natural history museum

so last night was a bad night. i didn't sleep. i don't want to do anything and i hate it when i start the week out like this. i have so many things i would love to work on, but all i really want to do is sleep--boo! 

here are some thoughts that are freaking me out:

did you know that halloween is 3 weeks away?

did you know that the next queen bee is only 5 1/5 weeks away?

did you know that i still have bunches of product photos to take and listings to make?

does anyone have tips on how to balance work and the holidays?

we are going to try to power through and get a blog post out there and then maybe i will do a pilates video, while isla naps and penelope watches sesame street, maybe that will make for a more productive afternoon?

i thought i would share some pictures from the  natural history museum. we went there last tuesday for the free residents Tuesday. it is a really great museum and we will totally hit it up next month as well, because we just couldn't see it all.  they had some really great exhibits. penelope was excited by the fossils, the animals and the interactive displays. this first picture is from the artic exhibit:

also, here are some cute pictures of my little bug:

5 months

i know this is a theme of my blog, but I CAN'T BELIEVE ISLA IS GETTING SO BIG! yes, i did shout that. my little babe is 5 months old and she is just so sweet (refer to images below.) here are a few bits on the chick:

1. she sleeps great. she takes 2 naps a day. she goes down to bed at 8pm, i usually (but not always) feed her at 5 am and then she sleeps until 8 or 9 am. this schedule makes me happy.

2. she's starting to chatter a lot more- it gets increasingly louder if she's feeling left out. 

3. she's not super interested in moving around. she can roll over, but she really doesn't care to. 

4. she loves to play with her hands still. she plays with her feet too, which is too cute to handle. among other toys she likes are mommy made dollies, her squeaky giraffe and her crinkly elephant.

5. things to work on: she still doesn't take a bottle or a pacifier. 

6. we still aren't sure what color her eyes will be. they are a little green, but there's some golden colors coming in too...so maybe hazel?

7. we are all too curious about when her hair will start to grow to even speculate what color it will be.

8. isla is a mellow gal, she loves to cuddle with all of us, and she is so very interested in her big sister.

we love you isla may!

weekend eats

i don't even know how it is already thursday! gasp. i had a bunch of blog posts ready (in my mind) for this week, but i guess i dropped the ball on those. here are a few pictures of the food we ate this weekend. i totally loved watching general conference and spending time with my little family. i am SO blessed. 

 for breakfast we had monkey bread. p helped me make it and she got really good at rolling dough into balls and dipping them in cinnamon sugar. this recipe is from Baked Explorations. it is so much better making the dough from scratch. they have you make a sweet dough and roll it in butter, and a mix of brown sugar and cinnamon. let it raise and it comes out of the oven all sorts of gooey delicious.

i also tried my hand at naan! this turned out divine! i froze half of the dough and we still had leftovers. the recipe was SO SO easy. i used this recipe from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 1/2 cups bread flour
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.
2. Punch down dough, and knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
3. During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat.
4. At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil grill. Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.

i also made tikka masala from here. it is was not super awesome. i think it used just WAY too much spice and way slightly overwhelming. the taste was good though and i think i will give it another shot, but maybe 1/4 the spices...