5.31.2010

happy birthday mister

it's the mister's birthday today, so we are having a little bbq
and my aunt v's famous 14 carrot gold cake (recipe below) to celebrate.
hope everyone had a great 3 day weekend!



aunt v's 14 carrot gold cake

preheat oven to 375 degrees

mix together:
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups veg or canola oil
4 eggs

then add:
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mace or nutmeg
2 cups grated carrots
1 (130z) can crushed pineapple & juic
1 cup chopped walnuts (i used pecans)
2 tsp vanilla

mix together, place in lightly buttered pans and bake for 30 minutes

frosting for 2 layer cake:

1/2 cup (1 cube) butter
80z philly cream chees
1 box powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

beat well with mixer. if frosting seems dry add a small amount of milk.

enjoy.

5.27.2010

what's new?

we have got a new project in the works over here in my
neck of the woods. the mister, little fella and i ventured
out to the home depot today to pick up some lumber for
our new deck that we (actually the mister) are going to build
in our front courtyard. we live in a tiny space, so we are always
trying to make the most of what we have. our last project was
the sandbox and this project will not only add to, but almost
complete our summer additions. we still have one major project
that goes along with this one and my hope is that i
will be able to share it with you soon...

this little van is the best, good for hauling kiddo's,
surfboards, lumber, you name it!

the project site


while we were out and about working on our project
a special package arrived with these...

new shoes for the little fella

he was so excited he marched his cutie patootie
right over to the neighbors to show them off

that's right he's lookin good, feelin good and workin it!

5.25.2010

strawberries are headed our way

i love this little strawberry plant right now.
it's blooms and fruit are making me happy!



freeze frame...five

5.23.2010

just for fun

i was messing around with the camera while we were
driving home from our camping trip and this is what i got.
i think these kinda turned out pretty cool. enjoy...


the mustard flowers covered these hills. it was beautiful


these are poppies i love them especially in this abstract view


5.22.2010

the red balloon

if you know me, you know i have an obsession with children's books.
i especially love classic children's books. so, when i was scouring the
book shelf at the library's used book sale i was beyond ecstactic when
i found this original classic copy of the the red balloon. we have rented
the movie and watched it several times, but this was the first i had seen
on the book. honestly i had no idea that there was a book that went
along with this classic film. it is now one of our favorite books to read
or just to look at and i am very pleased that it has made it's way
onto our bookshelf...
this little fella is obsessed with balloons and now with this book

we brought it on our camping trip and it kept him entertained in the car for awhile

it's also good for playing peek-a-boo

we heart the red balloon

5.21.2010

that's camp


finally, i am getting to this post. i have been wanting to do it for
the past few days and it seems that it has just been one thing or
the other around here lately. so, here it is our first camping trip of
the season. we took the kiddo's to one of our favorite spots that
we usually go to every summer - jalama beach in santa barbara county.
this place is a hidden treasure off of highway 1, that since it's publicity
in sunset magazine a few years ago has become somewhat of an un-hidden
treasure. it's still a fun place to go, but because it's a first come/first serve
(no reservation) park it gets pretty packed. especially in mid-july when we
usually go, which we still might do this summer. anyway, it had been way too
long since our last visit and we needed to sneak one in before july.
we had a really fun time. here are some of my favorite pics from our weekend.
ironically enough i have no pics of us on the beach - hmmm go figure...


it's a 14 mile drive from the highway and probably one of my favorite roads

it's just scenic country views until you end up in front of the very blue ocean

my fella's setting up camp

what a nice little set up huh?

the mister trying to catch some wild life (it was a lizard and it was too fast)

little miss having some alone time ( this is the first time i didn't pack a ton of toys, just these ponies, art supplies and books - it was great!)


three things i love about camping...

#1. camping bed-head

#2. camping with these guys

#3. camping breakfast= chocolate waxy donuts (love 'em)


this is the biggest tree in the whole camp ground and it was in our site

this little fella loved to run around it


the little miss and some of the treasures we found on the beach -
a starfish and a whole crab shell

this was the first time i noticed the sound of a magpie.
( i'm totally into birds lately)

not only does he set up, but he tears down too. what a guy!

sadly, we must return home, but we had a great trip all in all.
farewell my sweet jalama, see you in july.

5.18.2010

piercing pagoda

we went away for the weekend. we went camping up near santa barbara
and had a great time. (pics of that on tomorrow's post)
while we were sitting on the beach the little miss started to talk
about wanting to get her ear's pierced. she had talked with me about this
a few months ago, but then quickly dropped the subject when i told her that
it might hurt. "no biggie" i thought, "she's not ready." well, this weekend
it was all she could talk about and when we were packing up to leave all she
kept saying was, "i can't wait to go get my ear's pierced." i heard this the whole
way home. so, finally i told her that we would go to get her ear's pierced
after school the next day. needless to say, she held me to it...



before the piercing

getting ready

the right lobe

and the left

one happy kid

she was super giddy right after


i was truly proud of the little miss. she was so brave.

5.12.2010

sew fun wednesdays...three

week three of sew fun wednesdays and i really am having soooo much fun.
this week i worked on another project for the little miss.
she's had this pair of jeans that are super cute, but a little to tight
in the booty and thighs, so she hasn't been able to wear them lately.
well, the other day i was checking out some new blogs and ran across this one.
she had done a post about this and so i thought it would be a perfect
project for week three. i tried following her directions on how to complete
this, but it didn't work out to well for me, so i decided to wing it with
the help of my sewing instructor and this is what we came up with...

what you need: pair of jeans, scissors, sewing machine,
seam ripper, decorative trim and thread

first: cut the jeans to desired length and use
the seam ripper to open up the inner thigh and crotch seam.
next: cut two pieces of fabric from the left over
pant leg and place in the open seams folding
the crotch seam over onto the opposite leg (front and back)

then: pin on decorative trim to the bottom of skirt

finally: sew on trim



viola! you have now have a new/reused skirt for your little miss.


5.11.2010

flower fields

i have to apologize. i wanted to post this a week ago and didn't get
the chance to do it. but, i wanted to share these photo's with you because
we had such a great time at the flower fields in carlsbad. we went about a
week and half ago, which was the last week of the season. hince my apology.
when i find a good place, i like to blog about it so you can check it out for
yourself. it is open year around, but i am not sure if they plant year round.
you can check it out on their website if your interested.
regardless, it's something to put on your calendar for next spring.
we had a blast! here's what we did...

we took pictures with flowers




the little miss stopped to draw the flowers



we posed like flowers


we smelled the flowers



we ran (literally) through a flower maze



and acted super goofy while we were doing it



the little miss mined for treasures


here's her bag of loot



and we got wind blown on a tractor ride




all in all we had a great time and we will for sure be back next year if not sooner.