Is it April yet?

I have been ALL kinds of distracted this month. April 18th is Andy's son's birthday -- Anthony will be 4! I LOOOOOVEEEE parties, especially planning them. A kid's birthday party? SHUT UP. Needless to say, I've been on a planning roll. So much so, that it's completely slipped my mind that I have a CMA certification exam on the 30th of this month that I haven't studied for. Oops?

I know I should really be studying and I REALLY need to stop swiping my Chase card so often, but party planning is way more fun than studying. So sue me.

Because Anthony is a boy and he's turning 4, he's into cars.. as in "Cars," by Pixar. Duh, right? What little boy nowadays doesn't like "Cars"? I immediately starting Google searching for party ideas and inspiration for a Cars-themed birthday party (two of my favorites are from Kara's party ideas and So Wonderful So Marvelous).

My favorite part of planning so far has been making the invitation from scratch. I had to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator CS5 just to make the darn things, but I FINALLY figured it out (like 3 weeks later) and came out with a great design!


Yes, I had to censor some stuff.

Cool, right? The coolest part is the barcode, where I hid some fun info about Anthony: his age, his birth date, and the time he was born (04, 04182008, 0759). As Andy would say, "it's so meta." I can't wait till it's closer to the party and I can post more of what I've been up to. :) Wait until you see the cake!

That's all I got for today, kids. Stay tuned for a post this week about hamantaschen. Hummawhat?


Hugs and fishes,

Oops and stuff.

Unfortunately for me, I caught the early Spring season cold that's been going around. I have the little one to thank for that (thanks, Ant!). So, I admit that I've been neglecting this blog already due to my sniffle-y, miserable state.

BUT there has been lots of new developments over here!


Exhibit A: the KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer

I call her "Betty." As in, Betty Crocker. Betty has already been put to use making chocolate chip cookies and hamantaschen! (I'll do a post on hamantaschen soon, don't you worry now.)


Exhibit B: Le Creuset 6 quart French Oven in flame

This is Lola. She is a saucy minx. But in all seriousness, I LOVE THIS THING. This pot didn't even make 12 hours before I made something in it... and it was nothing short of fantastic. Seriously. Now, I know people argue about the price of Le Creuset and I can agree; the price can be outrageous. This particular model costs upwards of $338 on Amazon. However, thanks to Andy's ability to find a great deal, I got for about $183. And even though that's the most amount of money I've ever spent on one piece of kitchen equipment, I practically smacked Amazon in the proverbial face with my cash. I made Coq au Vin, which is a french country dish of chicken and burgundy wine and I was beyond pleased with the result. Once again, this will be a post for another day. I promise, I promise.

Exhibit C: New pantry! ...Almost.

Yeah, so there's no picture yet of this as it's a work in progress. Andy had surgery on Thursday, which sort of threw a wrench in our motivation (plus, I still have the sniffles). Despite the mutual lack of want to do anything right now, we at least started the project! Go us!

With all our purchases lately, the kitchen has been getting kind of ...cramped. Ok, it's more like giant mess in here. There is crap on every. single. surface. Ughhhh. I'm slightly type A, so this has been driving me up a wall. Plus, we cannot figure out how to buy enough food for all of us and fit it in 2 tiny cabinets. Because we can't stock up, we're stuck going to the grocery store almost everyday. So, we decided to convert a closet into a pantry. I so can't wait until it's done!


I'm so sorry for the lack of posts. I have TONS of stuff to share, including a few recipes, a couple product reviews (can you guess what I might be reviewing?), a life hack, my very FIRST party planning post, a blog recommendation, and a tutorial of sorts. I'm psyched. You should be, too.


Hugs and fishes,