Heavenly Blue's

Today not only looked like spring, but it smelled and felt like it too. I spent the early part of my morning inside doing basic little chores around the house, and slowly sipped my latte. Once I got home from picking my eldest up from school, we were outside the entire day and it was awesome! Things have been busy, interesting, surprising and just all around unpredictable this past week so I hadn't really had to many moments to sit and breath a little. Mark tied up loose ends with school this quarter and we are now free to garden our little hearts out. My ultimate plan is to check at least one thing off my spring 2013 to-do list every day. So far so good.

I don't know what this plant is, but I love it and want more of it. There's zero maintenance (highly desirable right now) and it's green all year round. Once I'm familiar with it, we'll see about planting a bunch of it on the side of the house facing the street - a strip of garden that has been really needing some larger plants. This yard is all around NOT easy to maintain, and we would like to change most of that into gardens that keep themselves. Mostly the "curb appeal" areas are the ones that need low or no maintenance plants, bushes, tree's, something!

 I did something I've never done here before. I cleared and cut back the boxes that hold the grapes, one of the clematis, and lavender. All of it was so intertwined together, and the grapes are so happy here I've been scared to do anything to them. Part of my problem in not knowing what I should and shouldn't do was that I could never figure out exactly what kind of grapes I was dealing with. Well, today while cutting back the lavender, I struck gold! I've found hundreds of old tags while gardening here, but could never find one for the grapes, until today. They're Heavenly Blue Grapes. They are among the most desirable kinds around, and so they're considered table grapes. Which would explain why they're always to sweet and juicy. The little I've found out about them is interesting - like they were almost extinct until they were saved by an avid horticulturist - thanks dude!

I also managed to clean out most of my raised boxes (there's only 1 ugly one left!).  I even pulled out all the elephant garlic that won't stop growing but isn't edible at all. Some bulbs from last year got left hidden in a corner - not buried at all, and they're growing right where they are. The rocks in this box are project rocks. Up close, they have some cool details about them so I plan to make them garden markers.  I have paints around here that I could use up and paint on veggie names that I grow every year. One will say carrots, one will say zucchini etc; I saw it on Pinterest a while ago and remembered it as Mark and I were moving around large rocks. So far I've found 2 pieces of well weathered wood, and 2 flat rocks. 

I got my last round of Pampered Chef today! I splurged on a deep dish stone pie plate and I can't wait to use it, and everything else that I got. Then after all this work (not to mention that I cleaned the car inside and out and did some things around the garage too) I went into Subway to grab dinner, ordered 3 BLT's, and was asked if I wanted lettuce and tomato...do you speak up or shut up? I shut up and waited for her to realize what she just asked me, but she didn't. Tomorrow will be a good day - finally getting a new windshield and will have some out of town family over for none other than food! Don't know that I'll get out in the garden at all, but I know I'll be doing some research on plants. 

The Cake, The Freeze

It sure is nice to sit down, I swear it's the first time in at least 4 days! Last Friday was baking day. With little ones around, at my feet, and looking for dirty beaters to lick clean, it took me until 11p.m. to get the entire cake baked. That included getting the tiers stacked ( but still separate from each other ) and crumb coated. 

Here is my first pile of sifted cake flour. This was for the bottom tier, white butter cream cake. 

I got to use my new spreader finally, I loved the feel of the spread but it did take some getting used to. So with every big project, comes anyones "nightmare" right? I had made my first batch of frosting. Half way through my second batch of frosting - my hand mixer that I've had for almost 12 years totally fried on me. If it had flesh, it would have twitched like a recently slaughtered chicken. There was no way I was whipping such a thick frosting by hand. So I ventured out at 6 o' clock on a Friday night looking for a hand mixer. Gretchens is closed. Dicks is closed. So then I drive all the way to Fred Meyer which had next to no selection so I bought the best one they had. 

I get home, get it out and continue to finish my batch of frosting. It's fastest speed was my old one's slowest speed. It took forever to make frosting from the beginning. But if that's the only disaster I had then I'd say the day went pretty darn good. I let the kids have the house and only fed them when they asked. I didn't pick up a single toy, clean up a single mess ( outside of the kitchen ) and I didn't even care. Everything seemed so smooth, so calm. I was more nervous for the next day and having to drive all the way into Machias without damaging the cake. I drove like a gramma and it was all fine - it was pouring in Snohomish and seriously windy in Skagit valley so between the wind and heavy rain, my hair was ruined in next to no time. 

The final product! I was going for a country made, intentionally imperfect, simplistic feel. With a lot of help from my sister - I think it came out good, I was happy with it! We played with flowers for a little bit and all agreed on this. 

Another view. The top tier is devils food cake with fruit filling. The bottom is traditional white butter cream cake, with a whipped fruit filling. The frosting is buttercream. 

So after the wedding, me and my little family went to my parents house just to visit.  As I was leaving the church to go into Monroe to grab food, I noticed it started to rain a little thicker than normal.  It was snowing!  It wasn't sticking anywhere, until after I picked up dinner and headed to my parents.  I took this picture a while after it stopped snowing, and mostly melted. I was frozen to the bone I felt, wearing sandals and a dress. I was a very happy girl when I got home and changed into my warmest sweats. 

How To Wake A House

Yesterday for dinner, my husband wanted meatballs. So he got meatballs. I made my red sauce but used a different kind of canned tomatoes. I generally use a little from the can, and the rest is cut up fresh. The canned tomatoes were very tangy and I thought they kind of ruined the sauce. Shame on me! 

 The meatballs came out as they should, but trumped the sauce in taste. I'll call it a partial success, and I did try to fix the sauce but it was just too late. 

How do you wake up your entire house in a short amount of time without saying a word? You buy a Hamilton Beach piece of shit toaster that cost more than it's worth. Although I've had it about 5 years now, it's burned a handful of MY breakfasts and for no apparent reason. I think it's time to ditch this piece of junk. The house was warm, quiet, and I was just waking up. Five minutes later I'm swinging the outside broom around trying to get the smoke detector in Mia's room to shut up and the house is filled with smoke. Windows and doors are now open with our too large of a fan going full blast,  and it's stormy outside so it got cold, fast! I didn't want my english muffin anyways. 

Sleep was only a dream last night, as I woke up in Isabel's bed for the second night in a row. Chachi spend the second straight night out all night which means I may be hearing an ear full from my neighbor who "is too old to deal with Chachi at 2am - he eats Salisburys food, pulls his fur out on MY chair, and has these meowing wars with both my cats! I'm too old for this!" Yes, that conversation really did happen. 

Pampered Chef

There's been a lot of Pampered Chef stuff flying around here lately! I had a party in November, one friend had one in January, and another friend just had one last Saturday. We all scored awesome free stuff and I couldn't be happier with my stuff! Of the long list of things that I ordered the last time around, I got this bamboo serving set. I purchased bamboo spoons and scrapers and such a while ago and just love the look and feel of them. So I set out to replace anything that I could with bamboo. I love the idea of a bamboo ladle. 

Anyone out there into apples? There's a crop out there - organic Fuji apples. BEST APPLES EVER! Seriously these are probably the best apples that I've ever had in my life. I buy a lot of apples lately as we can't seem to keep them stocked for very long, so we get all the varieties all the time. Something about the crop that is in stores now, they're so sweet, juicy and crisp. I feel like I've been having an apple affair. 

In my recent post, I talked briefly about my brother having a baby soon, well the due date for that baby is now April 9. They're getting married this weekend, and I am making their wedding cake. I'm a bit nervous as this is my first official wedding cake (and hopefully my last). It won't be something you see out of a magazine by any means, I can't pipe to save my life or make flowers or designs. It's going to be a very simple 2 tiered cake with fresh flowers. My sister gave me the idea of a lily or tulip, and I think that's a great idea. I guess a simple cake is better than no cake right? That means that I have a good two days worth of baking and mixing ahead of me.

I plan to make one tier white butter cream cake, and the other devils food cake. I've made both these recipes before and am confident that they will come out. I can make these a couple days ahead and freeze them. I plan on transporting the cake unstacked to the church and then building it there and I can only hope that SOMEONE out there with an eye for small detail will notice something and give me their brain for a little bit. If it looks like shit, I know it will taste amazing. Whats kind of crazy about this is that I've considered taking those cake decorating classes at JoAnn Fabrics.  I'm sort of kicking myself for not doing it when I first thought about it. 

Aside from some laundry, I plan on going to the RE store today. It's a big store on the edge of town that  people take old materials to, like when they rip it out of their house but it's still got life in in - you can find some pretty cool things! You can find large slabs of granite for like $100 or cool old doors, or old stained glass. It's a cool place to look for treasures because sometimes they end up there!

Music, Opinions, and Honesty

 DISCLAIMER!!! Im in a weird mood. This is a weird post. If you aren't ready to dive into my mind - go back to facebook and do something else. :)

Music is considered evil (laughable) and some is "bad" for our youth's ears. Music teaches us to be bad people. Music leads us to commit crimes. Music causes murder.  Music causes suicide. Music teaches men to mistreat women.  Can you guess which of those are just not true? All of them. 

Music is important. Music I believe calms the soul. Music can be very therapeutic. Music is art. Music is a form of love. Music is expression, style and talent. Some is full of "bad" words - by the way, who decided what makes a bad word? Who are these people that they're so uneducated about what is, and what isn't, in the world of music? Why am I talking about music you wonder. 

Since before Mia was born, I always wondered what kind of mother I would be. Would I be that overprotective, naive mom who shelters her kids from everything around us? Would I be the chill but protective mom who lets her kids explore freely? Turns out I'm a mix of both, and maybe a little extra. I'm a momma grizzly that can bake you a cake, or put you in the ground. I prefer to bake a cake though.  

I often refer to the way I was raised when I come up with these questions. Well, I went to my first concert when I was 4, seeing Heart. I was pulled out of class in the 5th grade to see Queensryche, and 6th grade to go see Ozzy. My parents later let me go to rap concerts in distant cities. They briefly put up a fight over my music in my early teens, hating my hard core gangster rap like 2 Pac, Dr. Dre and Three 6 Mafia. I only learned how to hide things better. They learned that you can't change the music a person listens to. 

I don't want my kids to have to hide their music. I cringe at the sound of country and jazz, but if it's their flavor I hope that I can be happy that they discovered the love of their own style all on their own. So no, I don't hide music from the girls. They listen to everything from my husbands country to my favorite, often angry, yet poetic Polish band Closterkeller. They can hang with Bach and 2 Pac. They ask for the music to be turned up, and then they dance their little hearts out! Who would miss such a thing?

Mark and I have decided that we would much rather introduce things to our girls as they come up, then for them to learn about it from someone else. If you shelter them from everything, they have a much higher chance of not being able to properly cope with things that come their way. It mirrors a lot of past lottery winners. They were either dirt poor or just making it and then all the sudden they have millions of dollars. They're ALL broke. They were never taught how to manage money properly because they never had it - and when they finally get it, they spend it all within about five years. Most of them end up being in major debt and some have even gone to prison for tax evasion. 

I find myself pausing before I answer some of Mia's questions. I want to be honest with my girls. Where do babies come from? Sorry dear but they don't come from Heaven, or storks. They come from when a man and women love each other so they sleep together. That's what I was told. Why can't I tell my kids that? It's the truth isn't it? Why should I sugar coat, or mislead my kids when it comes to simple or not so simple facts of life? We aren't in the 50's anymore, and I wish more people would agree with me that being honest with kids when it comes to serious questions, is the best thing a parent can do. Don't throw the bible at them, don't wait for them to learn it in school - or even worse - their friends or their parents. Be the parent! Be and honest parent. I work hard at preparing myself for some tough years ahead but if I can be honest with my girls from the beginning, in theory it shouldn't be a problem right? Ha! 

Rainy Rainy Day

What a rainy day! I let Mia wear her flip flops today, she's been asking all winter. She gets to paint with her feet at school today so it worked out perfectly. So far my start to the first weekend of the week is good - laundry is going (I'm behind of course) but the house is clean, and we are ready for weekend time! Im also excited because I just found out this morning that my brother and his fiancé are having a boy in May - which means I can shop for fabrics and start sewing. I'm super excited to watch my brother become a dad again! 

 Here's a picture of my hair. I spent 5 minutes putting stuff in it, and look - it has a little bit of body already! Miss Bel, always naked and never cold. This girl doesn't mind running in the rain totally naked. Thank goodness for top locks because if I didn't have them I would constantly be looking for her. When the house is on lockdown and she knows she can't get out, she dresses herself right down to the gloves and asks to go outside until you let her. It's probably a good thing because it helps get ME outside and that's good for my gardening. Just a quick note - any ladies out there who buys hair products at salons - HairMasters is having a buy 1 get 2 free. I scored over $60 worth of sprays, gels, and mousses for only $22. 

I got to spend time outside yesterday. I took mental note of all the bulbs coming up, and what should be coming up but I haven't seen yet. Mark did the first grass cutting of the year so it's officially gardening season for us. I bought these gloves at Costco a while ago - they were only $7 and you get 6 pairs of gloves. I plan to destroy them all! I pulled out a birdbath that I really like but just don't think I'll use. I've had good luck in the past selling online, so I think once I talk to Mark about it I'll try to get rid of that, and a few other things. 

When we moved in, we had a pond and a waterfall in the back yard. The pond was actually pretty deep, and with a toddler (at the time we only had little Mia) it wasn't safe so it came out. I sold the pond, utilized some of the rocks around the gardens, gave a ton away to my parents who used them for a pathway, but I still have 2 piles of very large, very heavy rocks. These have to go! They're driving my crazy. I always enjoy Wednesdays, I get to go to Aikido and get quality time with the husband. 

Good Monday, Better Thursday

I spent some time with Isabel outside today, and it gave me time to map my garden plan for this year. I'm confident in the layout, and after trial and error with certain veggies, I know what I'm good at and what to stay away from. I'm about to transplant my red onions, as they are getting much bigger now and I have no plans to attempt to grow more. They take too long. I want corn, pumpkins, zucchini, and lettuce. I feel like I can manage more if I have larger quantities of just a few or so different veggies. The girls will have their own box again, and maybe a barrel or two - I know that they really want carrots. Remember Mia has a green thumb, and she's excited to plant  again this year. I would also like to get a second 50 gallon water barrel for rain water collection - I will keep my eye out for used ones. 

The more sun I see, the closer I know I am to garage sale season. I have a mental list of things I plan on looking out for: old but decorative plates and similar cups for a special secret project, ornate picture frames, wooden boxes, garden fencing, and pottery. I'm not closed to flipping a few pieces of furniture, something that I've wanted to do for some time now. The things you see when going to these sales,  I swear people throw money directly into the garbage because they can't grasp the thought of refinishing something. I'm gonna see if I can't pick up some of these dollars people are tossing out. 

The last day has been different. I've neglected the house a bit, but managed to do some cooking, and even got outside with the girls a few times. I decided to make taquitos. I keep calling them flautas. I made the tortillas, then cooked and shredded the chicken mixing it with sour cream, cream cheese, salsa, fresh spinach and the chicken. I seasoned with cumin, salt and pepper. Rolled, fried, consumed. We dipped them in chile verde. They were really good! Its a recipe worthy of a recipe card. 

Mia and I made our first nursery visit this year after school. We looked at the cool ponds of fish, and I checked out some things in the main house. I have so much to do, once I got there I wasn't even sure where my shopping should begin. How about a "red item" off my spring to-do list? Oh ya, I'm starting with kitchen cabinet doors. I plan to refinish them, and finally replace all the hardware - the doors look awful and I can't wait to get this done! See how fast that road changed directions? 

The Art of Chair Hunting

I'll be honest. I was too lazy to get up and take a picture, so I pulled a photo from online that replicated my new chairs. In November of 2011, I finally got a large table. It came with ZERO chairs, but I didn't care. I was in love with the table and the sheer size of it. I had a mix of chairs to use while I shopped around. I'm such a penny pincher (now by choice) that I generally refuse to buy new furniture, unless it's something personal, like a mattress or bedding or pillows and blankets. If it's wood, and can be sanded or painted - why would I pay full retail value? 

So this entire time I have been frequenting moving sales, estate sales and good ol' garage sales. Which I have to add, I've mastered the art of shopping like this for certain things. I stay out of crappy neighborhoods, and frequent the more upscale sales. It's amazing what people are willing to part with and at what price - I tell you I could fill an entire house with one good season of second hand shopping. 

One morning, I was a feeling a bit bored. So I started checking out what my local craigslist had to offer as far as chairs. First post, there's a set of these chairs for $25 - for all 6 of them! My first thought is that this price HAD to be a typo, I've seen these chairs go for over $100 used. I have nothing to lose, so I call the number. The add had been up for 6 minutes, and they were now mine. So Mia and I put Isabel down for her nap, strapped ourselves in the truck, and headed out towards La Conner for my too good to be true deal. 

No, it was real. They're in awesome condition, with slight wearing here and there and they just needed a good cleaning. Turns out the very wealthy couple furnished their entire waterfront property with second hand furnishings and so they let the chairs go for  darn near nothing. They had this amazing view of the sound - one of those million dollar views. With the truck loaded and the sun out, I was the happiest girl! I looked up retail of these chairs online brand new - $259 each. I now had $1,554 worth of dining room table chairs that I paid $4 for. Patience paid off! 

Two Mondays, Two Fridays

I have such a strange schedule. Every week, I have what I refer to as two different Mondays, and two different Fridays. Maybe five days out of the week, I have two mornings. Lunch is sometimes brunch, and dinner is almost always at 5:30, my husband and I feel it's important to sit down for dinner every night as a family. About a week ago, I was joking with Mark that it must be great to be Mia, because she gets amazing sleep, and is on a typical schedule. Her weekends are really the weekends, and she gets three full meals a day. Isabel sleeps, sometimes. She eats, sometimes. She throws parties at 3a.m. and tries to include all members of the family. 

So why this crazy, mixed up schedule? Mark sometimes doesn't get home until 6:30a.m., then he has a short wind down time. Then I wake up, start my day with the girls. School, errands, cleaning, laundry, feeding, cleaning up food messes, Words With Friends, and shopping. It's no wonder I have a whole drawer full of different types of sweat pants. His Monday is really Friday, and his Friday is really Tuesday. So on Sunday, I have to prepare for the week ahead so Mia has all her clothes cleaned, and Isabel too. But then on Friday I have to do all my laundry so that I have all my clothes cleaned for the beginning of our work week. Hold on, let me process this a little bit..

It's no wonder I don't have much time for myself! I cherish my night during our work week, as soon as I get the girls to bed - I generally don't do much and I love it that way. So kids, this is where it gets interesting! I finally made my spring cleaning list - color coded - and printed it out. It has 21 major things to be done this spring. I'm also aimed towards using my spring "greening" recipes. I'll share them!

All purpose cleaner: equal parts white vinegar and salt.

Disinfectant: Mix 1/2 cup borax powder with 1 gallon hot water. Add a few drops of fragrant essential oil like thyme, rosemary or lavender.

Glass Cleaner: 1/4 undiluted white vinegar, 1 TBSP cornstarch, 1 qt warm water. For a line free shine, use crumbled newspaper or an unused coffee filter. 

Here's the best part:

POST CLEANING HAND SOAK: Warm in the oven a small bowl of olive oil. Soak hands in oil. Add sugar and scrub away the extra dry skin that has accumulated over the winter!

My crocus's are coming up! Along with daffodils, tulips and blue bells. It's so warm outside, I'd swear I was ready to get the rototiller going. I also cut most of my hair off, trimmed some side bangs and added multiple different layers and had it thinned. It feels so light! This morning I actually had time to put some stuff in it to give it some volume and it's awesome, it was long overdue! Now I get to take Mia to Chuck E Cheeses for a birthday party. 

Hello Again

Hello Again. It's been so long, I almost forgot the password to my own blog! I think about my blog from time to time, wondering if it feels left out. I would like to start writing again, and keep it up. Things have been interesting lately, and since my last post a ton of stuff has happened, gone on, been done and so on. 

Working out hasn't been happening at all, and I've gained a little bit of weight back because of it. I also blame this on my terrible eating habits (sometimes not eating at all because I just don't feel like it),  and lack of desire to eat healthier foods. I was doing really well for a while, and then a specialist that my husband see's changed his entire diet. It went from high fiber to NO/LOW fiber. What? So like pasta everyday? Thats when salad everyday went out the window. If I wanted to continue the diet that was helping ME, I would be making two different dishes for every meal. Not going to happen, my kitchen is not a restaurant. I am happy to say that my husband has been doing much better!

I had a job for 3 months. It proved to be the dumbest idea. What was I thinking? Having small children, a husband in school, a household to run, a garden to tend to, and downtime at night - is more than enough for any stay at home mom. I only asked for 2-3 days a week, and within' a couple weeks I was working 6 days a week, all day long. That shit didn't fly long because my day off consisted of large amounts of laundry, a house is serious need of a cleaning, dirty bathrooms, no food in the house, and errands to run. It was exhausting and the day I put my notice in, was a great day! Once I was done with the job, I spent 4 days just catching up on all the little things. 

The last year has also been a big year for personal reflection, growth, and understandings. I learned that you cannot always put "things" in pretty boxes and throw them in attics because they will haunt you. I have an incredibly smart husband who has taught me that there are healthy ways of dealing with things, and although it's hard to deal with them, it must be done. Well, in short - I did it! I dealt with some things and now I feel so at peace. 

I've also realized that I have totally neglected myself in the past couple years. I hate my clothes, my shoes, and everything in between. What happened to that girl with all the cute clothes that used to fix herself up most of the week? She was long gone, and nowhere in sight.  Well I'm sick of that character. I'm going to kiss my 20's goodbye soon, and this old me is going with it. I'm stepping into my 30's and I'm doing it with grace and style. I wouldn't say I'm reinventing myself, just getting my old "style" back. It's time. 

I have some serious gardening to do this year, and I couldn't be more excited about it. It started well last year, and then ended very badly when I got that job. My entire garden went from healthy and manicured, to total shit in about 3 weeks. Not this year, and do I ever have plans!

This photo tells a lot about me that I'm finally willing to address. I'm constantly cleaning something, my hair is a mess, I'm way overweight, and it's time for change. P.S., what I'm really doing is cleaning up the large mess our Christmas tree made when we brought it home. My mother-in-law made me stop so she could take my picture.