Julian, California

Last weekend we had a lovely drive to Julian- a cute little town about an hour and a half inland from carlsbad.


it is an old miners town and is known for its apples, so of course we picked up a fresh apple pie from "Mom's" while we were there.


it has a cute little all american main street with diners, shops, etc.




we went there for a classic car show.


It was at a vineyard and the drive through the rural streets were therapeutic.






once we got to the car show and saw everyone in down coats with scarves and gloves and got out of the car in our shorts and t-shirts, we quickly got right back in the car. it was FREEZING!! we were not prepared. had NO IDEA it would be THAT freezing in the middle of May in California. I'd say it was a waste to go, but, it was such a pretty drive that it was totally worth it. i can't wait to go back and explore the downtown area and also maybe some garage/farm sales. and we will definitely be prepared with coats, sweaters, etc next time just in case.

Ella's Umbrellas

I have quite a few BORDERS gift cards in my purse that i've collected over the past few years. My dad sends them to me for birthdays, but i guess he always forgets that I'm not a big reader. But these gift cards have come in handy now and i've bought several books for Pearce's library. I've enjoyed browsing the kids section and trying to find interesting or pretty books. I found this one recently--Ella's Umbrellas. First off I really liked the illustrations and all the fun colors but with lots of pretty white (my favorite color). But then I read it, and it was a cute story with a good message about sharing. So here is the newest addition to Pearce's library.

Here are a few snapshots inside the book...

I don't know much, actually nothing at all, about children's literature....so if you have any good recommendations, I'd love to hear!

What's for dinner?

Ever run out of ideas of what to make for dinner? I sure do! whenever I'm talking to one of my sisters (which is very frequently), I always ask them "what's for dinner?" I love getting ideas from them. My older sister, Jessica, even plans out her dinner menu for the MONTH!!  So I thought by posting a weekly menu on my blog would keep my momentum going for making meals at home. And also, maybe hopefully get some ideas from you?

Monday - mom's homemade spaghetti sauce with thin spaghetti noodles (and sliced cucumber salad on side.)

Tuesday - Tex Mex Chicken taco soup with cream cheese ( i made a big pot of this last week, so this is a leftover from last week that i froze)

Wednesday - Lasagna - I saved half of the big pot of spaghetti sauce and I'm using it for the lasagna.

Thursday - Chicken Fajitas. I bought a red and green bell pepper from farmers market today that i want to use, and i also have a sweet onion. I always have sour cream and some sort of cheese in the fridge and frozen chicken in the freezer. So I just need to pick up some tortillas sometime this week.)

Friday - Wild Salmon (I bought frozen from costco and it already comes marinated in yummy seasonings. I just need to pull out of freezer the  night before). I'm serving with grilled asparagus topped with chunky feta cheese, and Cashew Rice Pilaf

Saturday - Cheese quesadillas with leftover tortillas from fajitas and we always have Costco salsa in the fridge and sour cream as compliments to the quesadillas. Or heck... we'll probably eat out somewhere. It's the weekend baby! This is more of a snack or desperate sunday meal when nothing is planned. ;)

Next week I want to make all new things. So if you have any favorite recipes, please share. Otherwise, I will be reading through my cookbooks this week to plan for next week.

two months

this little munchkin is already two months! she has grown so much and is so much more interactive. i love when she "talks" to me. and i get a big kick out of everytime she gnaws on her wrist like a dog with a bone. 

because she loves sitting up like a big girl with mom and dad while watching tv, we put her in the bumbo for the first time today. she liked it. but only for about 5 minutes. then she was ready to get outa there.

Doctor said at check up "you're baby is the size of a 4 month old". Her 2 month check-up had her weighing in at 13 pounds 2 ounces and 24 inches long. both in the 95th percentale. Our big chubby happy baby.

you can see more pics of pearce here.

Costa Rican Rum Cake

Or as Jeremy calls it "C double R cake". It's his absolute favorite, so birthday cake it was! It's super easy to make. It's just a yellow cake mix. But the yummy part comes when you poke holes throughout while its still warm out of the oven with a creamy rum sauce.



And my favorite part...topped with home-made whipped cream and chunks of macadamia nuts!



INGREDIENTS:
Cake: 1 package yellow cake mix
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs

Sauce:
1 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup rum (or 1 teaspoon rum extract)
14 ounce sweetened condensed milk
12 ounce can evaporated milk

Topping:
1 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1/3 cup coconut toasted (optional - we did not use this)

METHOD:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13x9" baking dish. In large bowl, combine all cake ingredients at low speed until moistened; beat 2 minutes at high speed. Pour into greased baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees or 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Poke holes in cake. Mix together sauce and pour over while cake is still warm. Cool and keep in refrigerator. Cut into squares and top with whipped cream, toasted coconut (optional)  and chopped macadamia nuts.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART!! I love you!!


I love this last picture of peanut poking her head around the present to see what mom is doing.

Happy 34th Daddy!!

Love, Pearce

birth announcement

I had a lot of fun making Pearce's birth announcement. Throughout the pregnancy, I played around in photoshop creating a few different graphic design announcements. But just recently I  thought that I wanted to do something completely different and unique. 

The inspiration came from Jeremy's favorite picture of Pearce. This photo was never meant to be for the birth announcement...it was just one day me and Pearce hanging out listening to tunes on my iPhone. I've loved all the little Oilily clothes I got for her because of the funky prints/patterns on them. And I thought it would be cool to tie the photo in with the announcement by using the same pattern on her onesie.

So I just started doodling some of those same elements onto paper surrounding her name and birth stats. It's really too bad I'm the opposite of perfectionist, and hate doing anything more than once. Because this was just a rough draft. But, I kinda like that it isn't perfect. After I sketched on white paper with black ink, I bought 8.5" x 11" cardstock paper from Paper Source and printed 3 announcements per page and cut out to about 4" x 6" inches to be similar size to the photo. The color of paper is "plum".

{Pearce at 3.5 weeks}

I used the A6 envelope in the color "Curry". And I found these super cute address labels on etsy. The shop is called "Two Poodle Press." She sells lots of cute cards, announcements, labels, etc. 

And I tried to carry out the same handwriting as the announcement for the name and addresses on the envelope. This is pretty hard for me since my handwriting will change from one sentence to the next. hahaha.

Oh! And also. I love stamps and wanted to have colorful fun stamps. So I got these "Abstract Expressionists" stamps from the U.S. Post office website. 

I think they are funky and fun and I love how they turned out! I think I'm going to frame the original somewhere in her room.

To Market, To Market

Jeremy (and eventually I) watched the PBS TV special, TO MARKET TO MARKET TO BUY A FAT PIG last night. It was cool to see different farmers markets across the U.S. I particularly liked the one in Baltimore, because the people they interviewed were hIGH-larious. So this morning we packed the baby up, and headed downtown San Diego to Little Italy's famers' market.

There were really cool booths there other than your standard produce and flowers. We got some delicious croissants (almond my absolute fave and chocolate).

And we tried a sample of this awesomely scrumptious homemade pizza pie and it was love at first bite. We bought one to take and bake. buttery flakey homemade crust. thick layer of mozerella cheese, spinach and homemade chunky tomato sauce where you could taste every single fresh seasoning in it.

We sampled some Green Smoothies (with Kale, Chard, Collard Greens, Romaine Lettuce, Spinach, Dandelion Greens, Parsley, flax seed, banana, and apple juice). Jeremy thought it tasted like mowed lawn, but i kinda liked it. Maybe because i've been eased into the "green smoothie" with this yummy one.

Very cool place. We also saw a booth selling homemade pasta. Maybe we'll pick that up for dinner next time.

lou and lee

i LOVE lou and lee headbands. they are my favorites.

CARLSBAD

Well folks. We moved. We are now in the La Costa area of Carlsbad, bordering Encinitas. And we love it here. Jeremy's awful daily 170 miles round trip commute is ovah!! The weather is easy breezy. It's hilly and green. and it even has open spaces! Something I have rarely seen in California since moving here seven years ago.

Last week Pearce and I met up with our Huntington Beach friends and picked our own strawberries in the Carlsbad fields. It was so fun!!

The calm before the storm.

I thought the strawberry fields would be a great photo opp... but pretty soon after Pearce woke up, she was very hungry and not very happy. So this is about as good as it gets.

And yes, you can nominate me for mother of the year. hahaha

Strawberries are one of my favorite things in life. You better believe I made a big bowl of this as well as homemade strawberry shortcakes.

Pregnancy & Newborn Mag blog

So I was extremely excited when Kera, a fellow mommy blogger, asked to feature Pearce's nursery in her "Design to die for" blog for Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine.

And on a side note...I've been following her personal blog, "Running Mommy", for a bit now. Check it out, and read about her real life tales while living abroad in UAE.





And how can I resist not putting up my two favorite photos of Pearce today? We stayed in the entire day, she's been feeling a lil bit sick lately. And I'm almost done with her birth announcement...been writing, sticking, stuffing and licking a lot today. I'll share them soon! They're a bit funky, but i really like how they turned out.

my big hunk o' burning love

you can see MANY MANY more pics of pearce here.

Mama

You will always be the best mama in my eyes.

i've never known a more selfless, compassionate, hard-working, loving and very funny woman.

thank you for being the BEST!!!! i love you.

this special day now as a new meaning to me. this has been a day of gratitude and joy for me. i am forever grateful to have a sweet baby girl. i pray often to be kinder, softer and more patient because i am now a mom to someone i love so dearly. she has brought so much joy to my life in just these seven short weeks.

and i'm already trying to teach Pearce to say "ma-ma!" hehehehe

hubs

I was driving back from running errands today and i see this guy in front of me! what a fun surprise to see him on the road. i always wondered how he rode on his motorcycle when i wasn't around, so i followed him a block before i honked at him at the light. i can rest assure now that i've seen him in action. he was a safe rider. :)


i guess i'm dedicating this post to my husband because when we were at the grocery today we picked this up! Jeremy was stoked to see the limited edition throwback dew (with real sugar!!) - his all time favorite drink and breakfast of champions!

6th Street Design School

Pearce's nursery is on 6th Street Design School blog today! So cool!
You have to check out Kirsten's design blog, I've been a follower for some time now and i love all of her updates with inspiring interior design photos and DIY tricks. 

i smile

every day at this sweet face

Little Moth

Today I was excited to see that Erica at Little Moth featured Pearce's room on her blog! Little Moth is a design blog for wee ones. Such cute ideas for nurseries and little kid rooms. I also love and follow her other design and lifestyle blog "Moth Design". Check her out.

And speaking of Pearce, here is the latest picture of her taken yesterday. She is such a good little buddy while I run all my errands. Sweet as can be.

the perfect egg

I love being waited on. I love having someone bring me a cold fountain diet coke with fresh squeezed lime or even ice cold water for that matter. So, of course, my favorite thing about giving birth (other than finally seeing and holding my sweet precious) was that you are waited on hand and foot by nurses while you are stuck in a bed. In my case I was stuck in bed for 5 days recovering from emergency c-section. I looked forward to each meal that was brought to me and especially lunch.

Why? Because I fell in love with egg salad sandwiches!! I had forgotten they even existed, and I had never myself even made one. So when we got home from the hospital, and I was still in "pampered" mode-- Jeremy made the most delicious egg salad sandwich for me! I asked what fancy recipe he had. And he looked at me funny because all it was was chopped hard boiled eggs, mayo, salt and pepper.

BUT!! He used this thing...


I always wondered what this weird red plastic thing was that I push aside to get to my measuring spoons and other misc kitchen gadgets. Who knew that this was the magic perfect egg timer!?!?! Well, my husband did and that was how he made the perfect egg sandwich is because his eggs were PERFECTLY cooked. not hard and plastically like when I had done it in the past.

All you do is put this thing in the pot while you boil the eggs, and it will turn purple when it is exactly the right time. Then you drain the eggs and soak them in an ice-cold bath with ice. peel. chop. add mayo. salt/pepper. slap between bread. voila. today's lovely lunch. I have extra saved for my and hubbys lunch tomorrow - its even better the 2nd day.



I make it all the time now. And if you're wondering where to find one, they sell it at Sur La Table. I got my mom hooked on these sams while she was in town, and found one for her there.