Life with Mrs. T.

I'm a slacker (and some house updates)

2011-08-17T09:01:00.000-04:00

most of my blogging these days is about the baby, so it's all over on my other blog (Our Greatest Project) but I do have a couple of house updates!

By the end of this month, this room should look put together finally and will actually have a purpose! (This is a listing photo, so not our furniture). For the 3+ years that we have lived in our house, the room (which connects our garage to the rest of the house and also has the door that goes to the backyard) has served has a walk-through and storage room.

When we began renovating our kitchen, this room was tackled along with it since they share a wall and we were opening up the doorway between the two. We took down all the paneling and added recessed lights in the ceiling and built a closet toward the front. The whole room got new sheet rock/plaster and paint. The front is tiled (it will serve as our mud room area) and the carpet was installed this morning in the rest of the room (it took us a LONG time to pick out carpet - we needed something capable of withstanding very high traffic and kid-friendly since it will be a playroom).

couch will go in this corner

We love how it turned out. The couch is being delivered at the end of the month and MrT is currently shopping for a TV - soon we'll be able to actually use this room!

What type of baby are we having?

2011-07-18T09:47:00.002-04:00

Find Out!

new kitchen table

2011-06-08T16:15:00.000-04:00

it's so nice and big and I can't wait!

my kitchen

2011-06-08T14:52:00.000-04:00

is basically done. We are waiting for our new table/chairs to be delivered on Friday, but I wanted to show off my pictures :)

Let's take a look back at what my kitchen used to look like....

and here's what it looks like now!! Just for reference, the range is in the same place in the old and new kitchen

about where the fridge is used to be a second doorway to the hall on the other side. since we obviously don't need 2 doorways 5 feet apart, we closed one in.

we expanded the window above the sink (and took out the actual window) and expanded the doorway to the next room (and got rid of the actual door)

I'll have more pictures of the other side (the eating area) after the table is delivered on Friday!

in other news

2011-06-02T10:35:00.000-04:00

I'm glad the kitchen is almost done (updates coming soon, I promise - the counters are being installed today!) because then we can focus on the nursery :) Yep, Baby T (aka Squishy) is due December 6th!

I'm just over 13 weeks and things look great so far. I had a fairly easy first trimester and I hope that baby continues to be nice to me!

I've been keeping up a different blog to document this journey - feel free to follow along:
Our Greatest Project

new cabinets

2011-05-02T15:57:00.000-04:00

this is going to be a quick post, I just wanted to show off these pictures!

kitchen renovation - updates

2011-04-26T13:43:00.000-04:00

it's been a while since I updated, things have been really crazy but we have major progress in the kitchen! 3 weeks ago (I think), the old kitchen was completely demolished:

about a week ago (after the electrical and plumbing was done), we had plasterers come and make our new walls nice and pretty:

Then yesterday I finished painting!

Today the new hardwood floors are getting installed in the kitchen area (to match the rest of the downstairs). Then beginning tomorrow, the new and existing floors are getting refinished so that everything matches.

Since 80% of our downstairs is hardwood, we had to move everything to the spare (and previously empty) room upstairs:

please don't report us to Hoarders!

Once the floors are finished, it's time to install the cabinets!!!! Right now we're hoping to get that done Mother's Day weekend and then the counter people are coming to make the template for our counters. I can't wait for that part!!

perfection

2011-04-08T10:35:00.000-04:00

our new cabinets were delivered today!

kitchen design

2011-03-07T11:54:00.001-05:00

I'm in love with our kitchen design. I look at the printouts from Lowes quiet often and I'm so excited to see it take shape in real life!

Before I show you the new design, let's recap our current kitchen.

this is all of our cabinets and all of our counter space. The dishwasher will be moving to the other end - to the right of the sink

this was pre-wallpaper stripping when we moved in. We will be opening up that doorway and the wall above the sink

the stove will remain where it is. The fridge will move to about where the microwave is. We have a new microwave to go above the range.

Our eating area isn't changing much - just new paint, window treatments, and table (eventually). That doorway on the right will be opened up a little more

Here's the new design!! (courtesy of Lowes) Look at all the cabinets and counter space!!! I can't wait to bake in this kitchen!

kitchen cabinets and countertops

2011-02-28T11:15:00.000-05:00

In a very short amount of time, we've made decisions on the two biggest aspects to a kitchen renovation - cabinets and countertops. We found great deals that we just can't pass up (and luckily for me, MrT loves deals!). We're looking to order this week which will mean the project is officially underway!

Cabinets (not our house obviously) - Kraftmaid, maple cabinets, color = Chestnut

Countertops - Silestone, color = Kalahari

Things are looking good for a springtime renovation!

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

2011-02-18T22:09:00.004-05:00

I might be in heaven. When Jenny over at The Picky Palate said she had a recipe using Reese's PBCs and an egg, I thought, "how could this not be awesome??"

I usually have to go to the store to buy ingredients for a recipe - for this one, I bought a little food processor (somehow, with all the gadgets we got for our wedding, a food processor was not one of them). I wasn't sure my hand mixer would work and there was no way I wasn't making these.

These are so good and you really can't get much more simple than 2 ingredients! Stock up on Reese's PBCs (I used 30) and make sure you have an egg (I used a jumbo egg that seemed to get mistakenly packed within my carton of large eggs). Unwrap the Reese's, put them in the food processor, and process until finely chopped. Once all your Reese's are processed, add the egg. Since I bought a small (3-cup) food processor, I couldn't fit all the Reese's in there, so I did those in batches and then in a separate bowl, added the egg and mixed with my hand mixer.

Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper and roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheets. Flatten with spatula to ½" thickness. Bake 15-17 minutes or until the edges start to firm up. Let cool on pan for 15 minutes before transferring to wire rack.

Then, pour a glass of milk and enjoy the deliciousness...

and so it begins

2011-02-16T20:48:00.000-05:00

the kitchen renovation :)

okay, so it hasn't actually started yet, but the brainstorming/planning has! We're working on the layout and I'm starting to figure out cabinet styles and finishes. I got some samples from Kraftmaid and looking at them up against the paint color we're thinking of using.

so far I'm liking the first wood sample and the white. I really love the wood stain that's next to the white, but I think it's too dark for our space - our kitchen isn't open enough to pull of such a dark wood. I also browsed Lowes for the type of tile we have talked about using for the backsplash - so you can see that there too.

Even though we may still be a few months out from starting the actual work (depending on which one of us you talk to), I'm so excited this is finally our next project. It's been a long time coming!

Valentine's Day Treat

2011-02-13T22:57:00.001-05:00

I wanted to make some Valentine's Day treats and I had originally planned on making one of my go-to cookie recipes - Chocolate Chip and M&M - but with Valentine's M&Ms. Then I saw red velvet cake mix and decided something with that would be more fun! I know MrsD loves red velvet so I knew she'd have a recipe I could try and once again, she didn't disappoint!

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients
Cookies
1 box Red Velvet Cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
2 eggs, room temperature
1 stick of butter, room temperature

Cream Cheese Frosting Filling
8 oz package cream cheese, cold
1 stick butter, firm, but not cold
3¼ C confectioners sugar, sifted
½ tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Cookies
Preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Beat cake mix, butter, and eggs with electric mixer until combined. Roll dough into 1-1½ inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for a couple minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely

Makes about 24 cookies (12 sandwiches)

Cream Cheese Frosting
Beat together cream cheese and butter until just combined. Gradually add in sugar until just combined. Lastly, add in vanilla. Be careful not to over beat as the frosting will get too airy.

To assemble, once the cookies are cooled completely, pair them by size and frost the flat side of one cookie generously. Take the other cookie and place the flat side to the frosting and gently press together so the frosting reaches the edges.

Then, enjoy!

Candy Bar Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-01-23T10:29:00.001-05:00

I recently started following The Picky Palate and she posted a recipe for these cookies last week and I knew I had to make them. It's no secret that Reese's PBC are my favorite candy, so how could these cookies not be the most delicious cookies?! Luckily, I was not disappointed - these cookies are awesome (and huge!) and super easy to make.

pure heaven

Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter, softened (I used margarine)

1 C granulated sugar

3/4 C light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tbsp pure vanilla

3½ c all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

10 oz bag of chocolate chips (I could only find 6 and 12 oz bags, so I just didn't use all of the 12oz bag. And I used milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet)

variety of fun sized candy bars (I used Reese's and Snickers)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a stand mixer, combine sugars and butter. Add eggs and vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually mix flour mixture into sugar mixture. At some point, you will have to mix by hand so as not to put a lot of strain on your mixer's motor. I got about 3/4 through adding the flour before I had to mix by hand. The batter will seem a little dry, but that's ok. Add in chocolate chips.

4. Using a cookie scoop (or spoon for those of us that don't have a cookie scoop), place one scoop on top of your candy bar and one scoop on bottom like this:

photo courtesy of The Picky Palate

5. Seal the dough around the candy by pressing and shaping the dough until the candy bar is completely enclosed. Place onto cookie sheet and bake 9-13 minutes or until edges are firm. Cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 24 cookies (LARGE cookies)

One thing I would change is the size of the Reese's I used. I bought the small ones because I was worried about how big the cookie would be if I used a regular sized one, but next time I will definitely use regular sized ones (more peanut butter!), but the same amount of dough now that I know how easy it is to make these cookies exactly how you want them.

She also makes this recipe using Oreos instead of candy bars, those are on my list as well!

first house project of 2011

2011-01-16T18:04:00.001-05:00

After almost 3 years in our house, we are finally nearing the end of our major renovation projects. All we have left is the kitchen and the room next to it (we call it the breezeway) that will end up being a den/playroom area with a small mud "room" area as well.

The first step to this project was replacing the door from the garage. When we had our home inspection, one of the major things found was that the (former) door was not fire-rated (it was wood - so more like fire-inviting) and it also opened the wrong way (opened into the garage instead of into the house. this wasn't a concern of the inspector, just a pain to us).

MrT installed the new door yesterday and also rearranged/added some electrical work. There's now a new recessed light inside the door and the light switches have been moved to the other side of the door.

old door:

you can see the (black) light switches on the left of the door

also notice the cardboard in the bottom left pane - the glass fell out quite a while ago and we've had cardboard there ever since - not really insulating or secure!

new door:

it now opens INTO the house and no more cardboard window panes.

here you can see the new light in the ceiling - there's a second one just out of sight by the windows - it's so bright there now!

Next up is knocking down the mini-closet (seen to the left of the door) and building a new closet. Not sure when MrT plans on doing that, but hopefully soon!

so much snow

2011-01-12T22:42:00.001-05:00

Happy 2011!

Living in New England, we're accustomed to getting a lot of snow each winter. This winter has been no exception so far. Today we dealt with blizzard #2 of this winter (the first hit the day after Christmas). By the time we woke up this morning, we had probably 8 inches. By 10am when MrT went outside to clear the driveway, we had a foot and it was still coming down like crazy. It's stopped snowing, we have probably 18", and it's drifting all over the place.

Sugar Cookies

2010-12-27T12:14:00.003-05:00

This is one of my favorite cookie recipes and it's so simple!

Ingredients

2/3 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

1 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

2. Beat butter w/ electric mixer (I used my stand mixer) on high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined. Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat as much of the flour as you can w/ mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Cover and chill dough for at least 30 minutes.

3. On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough at a time until 1/4 inch thick. For best results, keep the half you're not working with in the refrigerator. Cut into desired shapes. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 16-18 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are lightly browned (Add 3-4 minutes for insulated baking sheets). Transfer to a wire rack (or counter) and let cool. Let cool completely before frosting - I used Wilton Cookie Icing that I found at Target.

Enjoy!

Christmas Festivities

2010-12-26T21:02:00.001-05:00

Instead of doing multiple long posts to recap the last couple of weeks, I'm just going to do one really long post :)

Last weekend, all of the girls from Mr T's side of the family (aunts, cousins, cousins' wives, etc) were planning on taking his grandmother to the Rockette's Christmas Show that was showing in Boston. However, she had hip replacement surgery just before Thanksgiving and while she is doing very well, she wasn't up to going out for a night on the town. The rest of us went anyway and had a great time! We had dinner at a great family-style Italian restaurant and enjoyed the show (despite getting yelled at to stop taking pictures - we arrived as the show was starting and missed the announcement about no pictures - oops!)

The day after the show, Mr T and I hosted our annual holiday party - I don't have any pictures from it, but we had a wonderful time with our friends and family and I have many recipes to share!

Then, my favorite night of the year - Christmas Eve! Ever since Mr T and I have been dating, I've attended the T family Christmas Eve "Extravaganza" (as I've designated it). It is one of the two holidays that basically no one in the family misses (4th of July being the other). In all, 28 people gathered at his aunt's house for dinner, gifts, and quality time together. My love for this night as only grown since being privileged enough to experience this family gathering - I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful second family.

my father-in-law

Mr T and his dad

The grab (basically a Yankee swap)

my brother-in-law and Santa

family love - the "kids" and great aunt G

And last but not least, Christmas Day! Mr T and I spent the morning opening our gifts to each other and getting ready to host our parents, my sister, and Mr T's brother for dinner.

Mr T and the beer-brewing kit I gave him

he got me the Kinect for our XBox - this thing is awesome

playing with the Kinect - who says you can't get toys when you're a grown up?!

Sox and me

Sox tired from the morning gift-opening

my mom, sister, and parents' dog, Lucy

my dad and his baby girl

Lucy and my mother-in-law

We actually have one more day of festivities awaiting us - our Christmas with Mr T's parents, brother, sister and brother-in-law. But we're in the midst of a blizzard (12-18" expected by tomorrow morning!) so we postponed our get-together until next weekend. Instead, I'm curled up on the couch, in front of a roaring fire and the NCIS marathon on TV, hoping we don't lose power!

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-23T10:43:00.000-05:00

hopefully I'll start blogging more regularly in 2011! I have a lot to post from the last 2 months!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

2010-10-31T17:52:00.000-04:00

Last, but certainly not least, my favorite product from this weekend's baking extravaganza...the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies! Another winner from my good friend MrsD!

Her recipe includes the from-scratch versions, I cheated a little and made the brownies from my favorite boxed mix, but I did make the cookie dough from scratch. I have no pictures of my finished product - I cut them up and put them away before I remembered the camera, so I'm borrowing MrsD's image

I also didn't make the ganache for the top - I'm not really a fan of chocolate frostings, and I didn't want to ruin these for myself!

Ingredients

For the brownie part:
1 box of your favorite brownie mix + whatever you need to make the mix as directed

For the cookie part:
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, softened
¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
¼ cup plus 2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels (I used mini-morsels)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9x13 inch pan.

2. Prepare brownie batter as directed on box. Pour batter into greased pan.

3. For the cookies, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl and set aside. In separate large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Add egg and mix well. Gradually add in flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chips by hand.

4. Drop by spoonfuls into brownie batter, pressing down lightly on the dough.

5. Bake 35-40 minutes. Let cool in pan for about 1 hour.

And even though I didn't use it, I wanted to include the recipe for the chocolate ganache in case you want it:

For the ganache:1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
6 Tbsp. butter
In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter until just before the boiling stage. Pour over the chocolate morsels. Let stand for about 20 seconds, then stir until smooth. Pour over the brownies, and smooth to cover completely. Let set before cutting. (This takes a crazy long time, but make sure to wait before cutting into them. I usually let them sit overnight, then cut them in the morning.) Cut into small pieces and enjoy!

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

2010-10-31T17:38:00.001-04:00

I had been talking to one of my friends at work about how I was planning on baking all weekend and his request was "oatmeal!". I wanted to try some new stuff, so I went in search of another cookie that has oatmeal, but something different than your usual oatmeal raisin cookies. I found this recipe and couldn't wait to try it.

Ingredients
3/4 C shortening
1 C packed brown sugar
1 egg
½ C mashed ripe bananas (~2 bananas)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
3 C oats (I used old-fashioned)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets

2. In large bowl, cream together shortening and brown sugar. Beat in egg, banana, and vanilla

3. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. Gradually mix into banana mixture. Fold in oats by hand.

4. Drop spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes (add 3-5 minutes if using insulated baking sheets). Cool on pan for ~5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool comletely.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Adapted from AllRecipes

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

2010-10-31T17:27:00.002-04:00

Sticking with the pumpkin theme, I found this recipe online and made a couple of changes to it. I made the same cream cheese frosting that I had for the Banana Cupcakes.

I'll admit that I have no idea how these taste - my coworkers are my taste-testers when it comes to pumpkin recipes. But they came out exactly as I'd hoped texture-wise and they smell amazing, so I'm guessing they're good.

Ingredients
3 eggs
2/3 C vegetable oil
3/4 C white granulated sugar
1 15oz can pumpkin puree
2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In large bowl, mix eggs, oil, sugar, and pumpkin. In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves.

3. Gradually add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture until combined.

4. Spread batter evenly into ungreased 10x15 inch jelly roll pan.

5. Bake 25-30 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

Makes 2 dozen bars.

Adapted from AllRecipes

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-10-31T14:03:00.001-04:00

I've been a slacker with blogging lately, but I have 4 new recipes to make it up to you.
After the success of my pumpkin bread, I started gathering more pumpkin recipes to try out. I came across this Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe on my friend, MrsD's blog and it could not have been more perfect! I've made 3 batches in the last 2 weeks - they're so easy and everyone l.o.v.e.s. them. I've actually had coworkers ask me if I put drugs in them (but no worries, these cookies are drug free!). The only addition I made was a teaspoon of ground cloves.

Ingredients
1 C canned pumpkin puree
1 C white granulated sugar
½ C vegetable oil
1 egg
2 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp milk
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 C chocolate chips (1 12oz pkg)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and cloves. In a separate, large bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg.

3. Dissolve baking soda with milk and add to pumpkin mixture.

4. Gradually add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture. Mix well. Then add in vanilla and chocolate chips

5. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes or until light brown and firm (add 3-5 minutes for insulated cookie sheets). Let cool on pan for 2 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

2 years ago today...

2010-09-28T09:15:00.001-04:00

I married my high school sweetheart
Today is also the 8 year anniversary of our first date

And ironically enough, the weather today is like the weather on our wedding day.

A quick look back...

8 years ago...first day of senior year of high school - a couple weeks before we started dating

2 years ago...

Happy Anniversary to my amazing husband!!

family room carpet

2010-09-25T17:48:00.000-04:00

as promised (and a little late), pictures of our family room put back together with the new carpet

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

2010-09-25T17:44:00.000-04:00

If you haven't noticed, I've been in baking mode lately. I can't help it - fall does that to me (even though it's about 85 and humid here today).

I always bring my baked goods into the office and the other day I had a few people ask me if I baked anything with pumpkin, since it's "that time of year". I honestly never have because I don't like pumpkin and neither does MrT. But in response to the not-so-subtle hinting by my friend, I decided to try it this weekend.

I browsed recipe sites for a highly rated pumpkin recipe (since I won't taste-test it, I wanted to be sure I picked something that was already tried-and-true). I found THIS recipe and decided to give it a go.

Beware, the recipe makes a LOT of batter. I made 3 mini loaves and 18 cupcake-sized muffins. I hope my coworkers like it because they're getting it all!

Ingredients

1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 C vegetable oil
3 C white sugar
2/3 C water
3½ C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground ginger

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the pan(s) you'll be baking with or line cupcake/muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, eggs, oil, sugar, and water.

3. In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.

4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and stir until well-blended.

5. Distribute batter evenly amongst the pans. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Baking times will vary based on pans used. The mini loaves I made took about an hour (however, I believe this is due to the fact that I used disposable foil tins - based on size I thought it would only take about 45 minutes); the muffins took 30 minutes.

Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2010-09-21T11:44:00.002-04:00

Found this draft unpublished from a month ago - not sure what I was waiting for!
_______________________

Like most of the recipes I have, I can't take credit for this one, I got it HERE. I love it because the spices make it my kitchen smell wonderful.

I also can't tell you firsthand how these taste because I don't particularly like oatmeal raisin cookies. But MrT requested them once so I found a recipe. He loves these and so do some of the people I work with. In fact, "love" may be an understatement - I brought a batch into the office a few weeks ago and they were gone by the following afternoon. A good friend I work with had eaten 4 before he left work that day!

Ingredients
1 stick margarine (softened)
1 stick butter flavored shortening (I typically just use a stick of (real) butter, softened)
2 eggs
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp salt
3 cups oats
1 cup raisins

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. In a large bowl, mix together margarine, butter, eggs, sugars, and vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Then add this mixture to the sugar mixture. Mix well.

4. Mix in oats and then raisins.

5. Drop spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool on sheet for 2 minutes then transfer to cooling rack.

Makes 2-3 dozen cookies

Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

2010-09-21T11:38:00.003-04:00

I can take zero credit for this recipe, as I got it from my good friend, MrsD, but it's too delicious not to share!

One of the best things about this recipe is how easy it is! It's very easy when you need a quick dessert or need/want something to bake on a weeknight.

Ingredients

Cupcakes
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (I used 3 bananas; frozen, then thawed)

Frosting
1 8-ounce package of regular cream cheese
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease your desired baking pan: either a 13×9x2 inch pan, two 9-inch round layer pans, three 8-inch round layer pans, or line cupcake tins with liners.

Measure all cupcake ingredients into the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Blend for 30 seconds on low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Next, beat for three minutes on high speed. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans, or fill cupcake tins about 2/3 of the way full.

Bake oblong 45-50 minutes, layers 35-40 minutes, cupcakes 20-25 minutes. Cool completely on racks.

To make the frosting, beat together cream cheese and butter. With mixer on low speed, gradually add the powdered sugar until completely incorporated. Add the vanilla, and blend. You may add extra sugar or add a little bit of milk to thicken or thin the frosting to the desired consistency. Frost cupcakes as desired.

Source: adapted from Vintage Victuals

Enjoy!

bathroom progress - 95% complete

2010-09-20T12:39:00.000-04:00

I am happy to report that after almost 2 months, our bathroom renovation is basically done. The reason it's not 100% is because we're waiting for our shower head/tub spout set to be delivered and MrT still needs to hang the shower curtain rod (but drilling through porcelain tile is not easy. It takes over 1 fully charged drill battery per hole. He needs to drill 4 holes - he's done 1. And he broke a drill bit.)

Long story short, we hired this plumber. He was good in the beginning, got the plumbing in, etc. Then he had to wait on us before coming back to finish. We had to do the electrical work, new walls, tile, etc. Basically he just had to come back at the end to hook up the sinks and the shower. Well, we've been ready for him for about 4 weeks now. Week 1 - he just plain forgot. Week 2 - he apparently hurt himself and spent all day at the hospital. Week 3 - he was later than he'd planned to be and we were having people over so we told him not to come. Week 4 - we didn't hear from him (and still haven't - and it's been 9 days since we last talked to him).

So MrT decided to take matters into his own hands. We've been talking about him finishing it for a couple of weeks now, but we kept thinking the plumber was coming THIS time. But when T couldn't get a hold of him at the end of last week, that was the last straw.

To say I love it is an understatement. I stand in there and stare at it on no less than 2 occasions per day. I can now brush my teeth, use the toilet, and do my hair in there. And hopefully after this weekend, I can shower and even take a bath!

Without further ado - pictures!

In the midst of this project, we also got new carpet (I think I mentioned that in my last post with the pictures of the hardwood floors. Well the new carpet was installed last Thursday and I am in love with that too. I don't have pictures of the room set up yet, but here is my beautiful new carpet, in all its glory!

Before:

After:

more pictures tomorrow probably with the furniture back in place!

"new" flooring

2010-08-29T16:52:00.000-04:00

While we have a dumpster here during the bathroom renovation, I took the opportunity to rip out some of the carpet in the house. There is hardwood floor underneath it all, but we'll be re-carpeting the family room and stairs so that still has the old carpet. But the hallway looks amazing! The floors are in pretty good shape, minus the small nail holes from the tack strips.

Before

After

We've been working on the bathroom all weekend - it's really coming together! I'll have pictures of that tomorrow I hope!

flash

2010-08-24T20:53:00.000-04:00

For my birthday this year, my parents got me a DSLR camera. It's the Canon XS (1000D). I *love* it. Our Italy pictures would not have been nearly as good with another camera, I'm sure of it.

Recently I've been wanting an external flash - I know from a couple of friends who have DSLRs that it makes a HUGE difference. It was delivered today and you tell me if you see the difference...

Needless to say, I now *love* my camera and the flash

tile - part 2

2010-08-22T20:32:00.001-04:00

Today, the husband and myself finished the tile in the bathroom. I laid the tile while T made the cuts. It was pretty much smooth sailing except for a couple cuts we had to make around the plumbing and our little cutout shelf wasn't easy. But, it looks great and we love the way it turned out!

it was raining, so T made himself a little tent

all done (minus grout)!

(blue painters tape = keeping bats out)

that little contraption in the cutout is holding the top tiles in place while the thin-set dries

so in love with the glass tile in the back of our cut-out shelf!

it doesn't look so dark in person...my flash isn't good in that tight space

Sometime this week we'll grout the floor and the shower and then we'll be ready to move the vanity in and for the plumber to come back and hook everything up!

tile - part 1

2010-08-18T20:04:00.002-04:00

Hubs stayed home from work today while the Verizon guy was here installing FiOS. He took the opportunity to lay tile on the bathroom floor. It looks awesome! I'm biased, but I think he did a great job - especially considering it's his first tile job.

He needs to grout it and then this weekend he'll do the shower!

overdue update - landscaping

2010-08-12T16:11:00.003-04:00

I just realized I never shared pictures of our landscaping! Last year, if you look back, we did the front walkway and patio. This year we got to plant new landscaping! Of course within a couple of weeks we entered a 2-month long heat wave (90+ for half the month of July, basically above 85 all the other days, and very little rain). I think the plants made it though. I guess we'll find out for sure next year!

I hit an electrical wire while digging one of the holes. This is what MrT had to do to bury it

Another hole uncovered this monstrosity. Solid cement.

Before

After

Apparently I have no pictures of the following with mulch...

And finally, some of the beautiful flowers from our plants!

This is a type of hydrangea. The flowers are a really pale green right now and will turn pink in the fall!

Since I love progress shots so much...here's a mini photo-timeline...

Before - when we bought the house

Last year - when we'd redone everything, sans landscaping

And finally, done!

let there be light

2010-08-11T22:22:00.000-04:00

I. love. it. Now I just need the vanity to get installed below it!

We also bought all the tile yesterday. Here is the floor tile:

and the shower tile with decorative tile that will go in the middle

one step at a time...

2010-08-09T23:26:00.001-04:00

gut bathroom........done
new plumbing........done
new electrical.........done
new tub................done
new insulation.......done
new sheet rock......done
new vent fan.........done
ceiling painted.......done
walls primed..........done
walls painted.........DONE!

what we have left is installing the new vanity light fixture, tiling the floor and shower, then installing the vanity and getting the plumber to come back to hook up the sinks, shower, and toilet. Then the finish work (trim, fixtures, etc).

The new paint is hard to see without something to compare it too. It's very pale on it's own, so you need something white to really see it. We needed something light because everything else is dark - the vanity is cherry, top is a black granite, tile is a dark tan, etc. We went through a lot of samples before deciding on the color. We ended up with Benjamin Moore - Constellation. It's one of their new Affinity colors and it goes great with everything.

story of a bathroom renovation - unfinished

2010-08-02T09:57:00.002-04:00

(click to see larger)

lots of progress this weekend

2010-08-01T23:29:00.002-04:00

we were busy little homeowners this weekend - working away on our bathroom. Saturday consisted of new electrical work, new insulation, new vent installed, and most of the sheetrock being hung (you saw those pictures yesterday). Today we (OK, the husband), finished hanging the sheetrock as well as the cement board in the shower. T then built a nice little cut-out/shelf in the shower wall. I also succeeded in picking out a paint color as well as starting the process of spackling the walls. Hopefully by the end of the week the walls will be ready to be primed and painted.

beautiful new walls - no, they will not be purple at the end of this project

shower/tub with the nice little shelf T built

where the vanity will go

the final color choice

after using scrap sheetrock to paint all my samples on, this is the winner. And luckily, this is the color that allows us to not have to buy new towels

bathroom progress

2010-07-31T15:30:00.002-04:00

the mess that is our upstairs hallway right now

new insulation installed by yours truly

and if you look closely, you can see the electrical boxes installed by Hubs

little hole = old light

big hole = new vent fan/light (currently being installed by Hubs)

and, just because I like looking at it - our new vanity (not being put in until next weekend maybe?)

awesome feature - drawers INSIDE the cabinet

We had a bit of a water mystery earlier this week. Monday and Tuesday morning, the plumber was here, blah blah blah. Wednesday morning I realize the water in our second bathroom isn't getting hot. great. it's barely lukewarm (not cold, but definitely not warm). Hubs thinks maybe the hot water tank (which was turned off all day Tuesday) just hadn't finished heating up the water. Thursday, same thing. On his way to work, Hubs calls. He had an epiphany - the new shower valve upstairs doesn't have a handle yet, so we can't stop water from running through it (it's a mixing valve). He has me run a little test - turn on every other faucet in/around the house (including outside hoses) on cold and then try the shower. Sure enough - hot water. Friday morning he also found the valve that shuts off just the upstairs water, which allows us to use our water normally again - no more turning on all the faucets just to take a shower!

Oh, and we had another bat in the house (refer to this post). It's been almost a year and a half since our last bat sighting. I'm just glad we can fully explain this one - bathroom is exposed to the attic, so that must have been how it got in the house, then Hubs thinks it crawled under the door. While I was so mad the night it happened (Wednesday night), it was definitely the least traumatic of our bat episodes. We saw it, opened the front door, and within a couple of minutes, it had flown outside. That makes 4 bats in 2 years. That makes me unhappy.

On a very happy note - I have to give a shout out to my good friend, J. She and her husband welcomed their first child, a bouncing baby boy, this past Tuesday. Little Jameson (Jamie) was born on July 27 (6 days late) weighing in at 7lbs 5 oz. I got to meet him on Wednesday night and he's just perfectly adorable and looks just like his daddy. I can't wait to watch the little bugger grow up!

more house renovations

2010-07-29T15:34:00.000-04:00

let's ignore the fact that I haven't done a recap of the last leg of our Italy trip.

Instead, I'm going to talk about our bathroom renovation :)

We've been planning this for months now (since March) and it's finally underway! Over the past couple of months we have bought all of the new stuff (vanity, tub, fixtures, etc). Last week we hired a plumber and things have been moving right along since then. This past weekend while I was walking in the Susan G Komen 3-Day for the Cure (post to come about that later), my husband and father-in-law demo-ed the existing bathroom.

Old bathroom:

current bathroom:

no more gross tub/shower!

brand new beautiful tub!

new plumbing for shower

new plumbing for double vanity

This weekend we will hopefully get a lot done - once the electrical work is done and the sheet rock is up and painted, we can move in the vanity, then tile the floor/shower and then the plumber can come back and hook everything up! sounds simple, right?

Italy Recap - Amalfi, Pompeii, & Capri

2010-07-08T00:40:00.001-04:00

Ignore the fact that this post is almost a month later than the other recaps. Work has been super busy and then whenever I get to come home at a normal time, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer!

Onto leg 3 of our trip to Italy...
(this post is VERY picture heavy!)

After our stay in Florence, we hopped in a van and made the 6 hour drive to the town of Amalfi (we did not do the driving, an experienced Italian driver did). The drive was a little longer than we'd anticipated due to some patches of torrential rains and was not aided by the fact that the last half hour of the drive was on the most windy roads I've ever been on. Since the villages/towns along the Amalfi Coast are literally built right into the mountains/cliffs, the roads go with the land rather than through it. So first we weaved our way up a mountain, then weaved our way back down, and repeat until we hit Amalfi. We could see our hotel for a good 30 minutes before we actually got there. My sister-in-law (T's sister) and her husband joined us in Amalfi for the last week of our vacation (so you'll see extra people in some of the photos!)

But I digress - I had high hopes heading to Amalfi and I was not disappointed. This leg of our trip was my favorite. Despite the first day and a half being rainy, we had a great time. We had great views outside of our hotel room (they got even better when the clouds and mist cleared a few days later) and we saw some amazing sights while we were here. Since we got into town in the evening, all we did was walk into town to eat dinner (which was amazing - keeping up with all the other dinners we had on this trip. I honestly don't remember having one dinner that I didn't LOVE).

(clicking on images will show larger version)

view from our hotel room

Our first full day in Amalfi, we decided to walk to the neighboring town of Ravello. As we were making our way up the winding roads, we kept saying that there must be an easier way to get to the town (which is on top of part of the mountain, whereas Amalfi is at the bottom). About halfway up we found a staircase that had a small sign on it that said "Ravello" and an arrow pointing up. Finally! That made the rest of our walk so much easier (and safer!). Once at the top, it was time for lunch and we found this great little spot that overlooked the ocean.

what a surprise, it was raining when we started our walk

still winding our way up the mountain the hard way at this point

lemon trees grow by the thousands here! It is the birthplace of Limoncello, after all!

trying to figure out how much longer we're going to keep walking before we find Ravello

finally! a sign! (and a shortcut!)

yes, I found another cat. This one was friendly

view from Ravello (at the restaurant where we ate lunch)

After lunch we visited Villa Cimbrone, which we were told offered some of the best views of the coast. The gardens there were beautiful and the views certainly were spectacular (though would have been even more amazing if it wasn't so cloudy).

siblings...T, A, and G

view from Villa Cimbrone

my wonderful in-laws

Typical Ts

G is "stuck"

After wandering around the grounds for a bit, we started the trek back to our hotel. This time we were lucky enough to find the shortcut right away and we got down the mountain in a fraction of the time (and with much less effort) that it took us to get up!

view from the bottom - we were at the top of that peak

zoomed in on Villa Cimbrone from the bottom

the view from our room improved with the weather everyday!

downtown Amalfi

The next day we took a trip to Pompeii. I was very much looking forward to this - I have always been fascinated by Pompeii, ever since we first learned about it in elementary school. I was not disappointed! The ruins were amazing and I could have spent so much more time there. I will spare you all of the pictures I took because most of them look the same!

mosaic floor

bath

Pompeii Colosseum

Mt Vesuvius in the clouds in the background

amphitheater

On the drive back, we drove through the town of Positano (our driver's hometown) - it was very pretty!

On our last day in Amalfi, we took a day trip to the island of Capri. We woke up to the most perfect weather and I couldn't wait to get on the boat! The trip over to the island was a little rough on the seas, but once we arrived, things only got better. While we knew the Blue Grotto was the sight to see, they weren't allowing anyone in the cave due to the height of the surf. So instead we signed up for a boat tour around the island and it was awesome! Our tour guide/captain showed us all the beautiful sights around the coast.

best view yet from our room - last day in Amalfi

view on the boat to Capri

Capri from the boat

main harbor - one of my favorite photos from the entire trip

White Grotto

Green Grotto

entrance to Blue Grotto

After the boat tour, we took a taxi to the bigger town on the island where we had lunch. Then we took a bus to the smaller town on the island where we were taking a chair lift to the very top of the island (Monte Solaro-Cetrella). The views were simply breathtaking. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

view from the center of town

view from the top of the mountain

T was excited that we had to take a chairlift - he was only missing the snow

After our visit to the highest point of Capri, we took the chairlift back down and headed back to the harbor to catch our boat back to the hotel. When we returned, we had a car waiting to take us to Rome for the last part of our trip. Stay tuned for that recap (and I promise, I won't take 3 weeks to write that one!)

I know I know

2010-06-24T12:49:00.002-04:00

I suck. I was on a roll with my Italy recaps, but then stupid work got in the way. I am planning on writing my last 2 recaps before this weekend is over!

Italy Recap - Florence & Cinque Terre

2010-06-15T15:30:00.018-04:00

As promised, onto part 2 of the recap of our vacation to Italy.

From Venice, we took a train to Florence. When we arrived at the train station in Florence, we set out (on foot) to find our hotel, knowing it was nearby. We also knew of a store we wanted to find that shared a name with us (the store's name is our last name), but we had no idea where it was. Imagine our surprise when we walked into the square where our hotel was to find that the store was right behind it! We actually found the store before we found the hotel (don't ask, the sign for the hotel was a brass plaque, about 12"x18", on the wall, behind a shrub. That's it. They're lucky we found it as quickly as we did). I won't be sharing the many pictures we took of us in front of the store for obvious reasons - but trust me, it was cool :)

After dropping off our luggage with the hotel (it was too early to check in), we made our way over to the Duomo - probably Florence's biggest tourist attraction. This is the largest dome in the world situated on top of one of the largest basilicas in Italy. We walked the 623 stairs to the top and the views are amazing!

(clicking on images will show larger version)

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

door to the basilica

detail around the door

inside the basilica, this is the inside of the Duomo

view from the top

T, me, P, S, G at the top

After settling into our hotel, we took off to explore the city a little. We walked by the Uffizi (which I've heard is incredible, but you need to book reservations ahead of time to get in and we never had the chance) and made our way over to our cooking class. The food we made was simply amazing and we even got the recipes (which I will share in another post - I promise!).

copy of Michaelangelo's David. We saw the real thing too, but no pictures allowed and I couldn't sneak one in

this is a real man - he was being statue-like outside the Uffizi

the Uffizi

Ponte Vecchio

view from the Ponte Vecchio

The rivers in Italy are not all that attractive - very brown and mucky

cooking class

brothers

rolling dough for gnocchi

gnocchi ready to be cooked

artsy shot of ingredients for chicken dish

huge meatball inside zucchini (I'm sure it has a much better sounding name, but that's what I called it). This was delicious

where we got to eat all the food we cooked

with our chef

the walk back from cooking class brought us this beautiful view from the Ponte Vecchio

The next day was a beautiful day, weather-wise (we hadn't been super lucky in that department for most of the trip up to this point). T and I spent the morning people-watching in the square our hotel was located in (Piazza Santa Maria Novello) and enjoying some delicious Italian gelato. Then we headed to a small town, San Gimignano (san gih-me-ah-no) for an afternoon at a winery and some wine-tasting. I have never been a wino, but let me tell you - the wine in Italy is a.maz.ing. We ended up ordering a case and it should be arriving at our house any day now. Not only did we order a case (6 white (a pinot grigio), 6 red (a chianti)), we ordered one bottle of their top of the line red wine (it's a world champ apparently) and we'll save it for a special occasion (T says our 5 year anniversary). We'd better save it for something special considering how much that single bottle cost! After leaving the winery, we stopped by the Piazzale Michaelangelo where the views of Florence are breathtaking.

Santa Maria Novella church

we'd been waiting for skies like this!

winery

lots of wine

P chumming it up with Pierluigi, the owner

us with Pierluigi

visiting the winery cats

I was walking away, stopped to take a picture, and within second, both cats were laying at my feet

T and me at the winery. Smiling despite having just ordered $500 worth of wine

we stopped on the way back to Florence to take pictures of the countryside

view from Piazzale Michaelangelo

it was a tad windy

T makes a good wind shield

We then visited the Palazzo Pitti (another palace) and it's gardens (the Boboli Gardens). This was another one of those lesser known gems (like the Palazzo Ducale in Venice) - the gardens, especially, were out of this world. I couldn't take a lot of photos inside the palace - usually I'm good at sneaking some in, but this place had staff in every room ready to yell at anyone taking photos

Palazzo Pitti

Boboli Gardens

Boboli Gardens cat. this one didn't want to be friends like the winery cats did

Our last day in Florence, we actually spent at Cinque Terre. I had heard it was a must-see so I was very excited to go. The day started out poorly - with torrential downpours and thunder. Seeing as the point of visiting the Cinque Terre is to hike the coastal trail that connects 5 tiny villages, we weren't happy campers. Especially once we found out the trails between villages 2, 3, 4, and 5 were closed due to the rain the area had received over the previous week. However, there is a train connecting all 5 villages, so we traveled that way instead. Luckily, the day brightened up very nicely for us (you'll see the progression in the photos) and by the time we reached the fifth village, it was sunny and 80 degrees! Then we saw the views we had been waiting for - it was breathtaking. If we ever get to go back to Italy, I will definitely be getting back to Cinque Terre (on a nice day!) to walk the trails.

case in point about the weather. Picture on the left is from the morning when we first got to Cinque Terre. Picture on the right is the same exact shot taken that same evening when we were leaving.

leaving Riomaggiore for Manarola

Manarola

still kind of pretty, even with the clouds and rain

Vernazza - the sun started coming out at this point. We stopped here for lunch

Vernazza

oh look, I found another cat

Vernazza

Monterosso al Mare

Monterosso al Mare - view from one of the peaks

on the walk from Manarola back to Riomaggiore

Tomorrow (hopefully): Part 3 - Amalfi, Pompeii, and Capri

Italy Recap - Venice

2010-06-14T15:56:00.009-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, we got back from a 2 week vacation in Italy. We had been wanting to go for some time and it was amazing! We had such a great time and we're already thinking about our far-in-the-future return trip! We'll see how long it takes me to write up a recap of our entire trip. For now, we'll start with part 1 - Venice.

We arrived in Venice on a Saturday afternoon. Since there are no roads (or cars) in Venice, we took a water taxi from the airport to our hotel. Sometimes the boats can go right up to the canal-side door of our hotel, but the tides were too low so we got dropped off elsewhere and wandered the "streets" of Venice until we found our hotel.

(Clicking on images will show larger version)

Venice Airport - leaving by water taxi

first glimpse of the "streets" of Venice

the Grand Canal

gondolas

walking to our hotel

After checking in we did some more exploring. It's very different to be wandering around a city that has no cars and no real roads. I found it easy to get yourself lost (which put me totally out of my element! I like to know where I am and where I'm going at all times). We visited St Mark's Basilica and St. Mark's Square. The Basilica (church) is beautiful (you'll see - even though I wasn't supposed to take pictures inside).

this is the view from pretty much anywhere in the city

St. Mark's Square

T and me in St. Mark's Square

my mother-in-law and brother-in-law feeding pigeons in St. Mark's Square

this one liked G's head!

St. Mark's Basilica

detail of the Basilica

inside St. Mark's Basilica

top of the Basilica

One of the best things we saw in Venice was Doge's Palace (Doge = Duke). We didn't really plan on going, but we walked by at one point and there was no line, so we decided to see what it was like. It was out of this world! We spent a good 2-3 hours in there and probably could have spent a little more time.

Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace)

T and me at the Palace

staircase going into the Palace

detail on the ceiling - most of the palace was like this! That is real gold

the prison within the palace

outside the prison

We also did the touristy gondola ride - and I'll be honest, I could have done without it. It was only 30ish minutes long and they don't talk to you about anything and you don't really see anything different from what you can see walking around. We did however also do a combined walking/water tour. We spent 3 hours with a tour guide, walking around the city and then took a 1 hour water taxi tour - that was much more interesting and you got to see a lot more of the city from the water.

walking tour

Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo (right) and Ospedale San Giovanni e Paolo (left - a hospital)

inside the Basilica

more from the walking tour - view from the Rialto Bridge

Rialto Bridge

Grand Canal

T and me along the Grand Canal after our walking tour

boat tour - St Mark's Square/Basilica/Doge's Palace from the water

Basilica di Santa Maria

cruising the Grand Canal

Rialto Bridge

On our last full day in Venice, we took a trip to one of the small islands in the area, Murano. Murano is known for its glass-blowing. We took a tour of one of the factories (where we saw a man make a horse in about 60 seconds - you'll see that too). Then they shuttled us into their factory store (obviously) and there you could purchase one of thousands of very expensive glass products. We then spent the afternoon walking around the island of Murano and eventually made our way back to Venice.

glass blowing factory on Murano

making of a horse #1

making of a horse #2

making of a horse #3

horse done

inside the factory shop

T outside the factory

Murano

We got up early the next morning and walked the streets of Venice with all of our luggage, ready to grab the water-bus to the train station so that we could head to Florence, the next stop of our vacation.

Here are some other various pictures from our stay in Venice:

P (father-in-law), S (mother-in-law), and G (brother-in-law) walking along the canal

I never got tired of taking pictures like this

gondoliers

This yacht belongs to Paul Allen of Microsoft. To give you some perspective, the sailboat you see on the side, is a 40-foot sailboat

there was also a helicopter on board

That's all until next time!

thank you!

2010-05-03T21:36:00.003-04:00

Thank you for those of you who have donated to me for the Breast Cancer 3-Day! I have now raised a little over $1000, almost halfway there! I still need $1300 so whatever you can spare would be greatly appreciated! Follow the link in my previous post to donate now.

I need your help...

2010-04-20T20:15:00.001-04:00

I am walking the Breast Cancer 3-Day again this year in Boston. I have to raise a minimum of $2300 but I have a personal fundraising goal of $3000. Currently, I have raised $760 and while I have 3 months to go, the sooner I hit my minimum/goal, the better!

I normally hate asking for money and I know the economy isn't the greatest, but whatever you can afford to donate will be greatly appreciated! Please consider making a donation to this great cause!

Go HERE to donate now!!

Thank you so much!

play ball!

2010-04-19T12:52:00.003-04:00

spring is officially here - Mr T and I went to our first Red Sox game of the season yesterday. They played awful (lost 7-1) and it was cool and kind of rainy, but we love Fenway just the same. Honestly, one of my favorite places on this earth.

I took the opportunity to test out my new camera and new zoom lens.

This is the un-zoomed view from our seats:

And zooooooom:

I found this awesome wall near the bathroom:

And how can you not love the Green Monster:

Jonah Hill threw out the first pitch:

We have tickets to a few more games this year, hopefully it will be sunny and warm and they won't lose like they did yesterday!

on this day in history...

2010-04-14T09:07:00.002-04:00

1775 - The first abolitionist society in U.S. was organized in Philadelphia with Ben Franklin as president.
1828 - The first edition of Noah Webster's dictionary was published under the name "American Dictionary of the English Language."
1860 - The first Pony Express rider arrived in San Francisco with mail originating in St. Joseph, MO.
1865 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth. He actually died early the next morning.
1902 - James Cash (J.C.) Penney opened his first retail store in Kemmerer, WY. It was called the Golden Rule Store
1912 - The Atlantic passenger liner Titanic, on its maiden voyage hit an iceberg and began to sink. 1,517 people lost their lives and more than 700 survived.
1981 - America's first space shuttle, Columbia, returned to Earth after a three-day test flight. The shuttle orbited the Earth 36 times during the mission.

1985 - I was born at 12:50am in Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Happy 25th Birthday to me! Have a virtual cupcake to celebrate!

Famous people I share my birthday with:

Anne Sullivan (1866) - Helen Keller's teacher
Pete Rose (1941) - Baseball player
Brad Garrett (1960) - Actor
Greg Maddux (1966) - Baseball player
Sarah Michelle Gellar (1977) - Actress

source: http://www.on-this-day.com/

yeah that didn't last long

2010-03-29T08:59:00.001-04:00

I totally forgot that making my blog private would prevent updates from showing up in Google Reader. And, I decided I was being too paranoid about nothing.

Soooo, I un-private-ized it.

Enjoy

bathroom inspirations

2010-03-27T18:28:00.007-04:00

We've actually made some progress over the last week in our plans for the bathroom. Not actual progress, but we've figured out a lot of the design aspects we want.

This is the vanity I think we're going to get:

And we like this top:

Tile for the floor (12"x12"):

Tile for the shower (6"x6"):

They look really similar (same company, same "family") but the shower tile is a shade lighter than the floor tile.

Now I can focus on the faucets, lighting, and mirror! And making sure the husband calls plumbers.

bathroom demo - goodbye teal tile!

2010-03-21T22:15:00.000-04:00

Today our bathroom renovation got underway! I removed about 90% of the teal tile that was on the walls. The remaining tile can't be removed until things get moved (the vanity, toilet, etc). We were hoping that we would just be able to sand down the tile glue, but that's just not going to work. So we'll have to demo the walls down to the studs and hang new drywall.

Here's today's progress:

Now we need to call in a plumber to see how much it would cost to install a new tub and to (hopefully) pipe in a second sink.

new camera = love

2010-03-20T15:16:00.003-04:00

So as I mentioned, by 25th birthday is coming up. I took a shot in the dark and asked my parents for a DSLR camera. I've been wanting one forever, but couldn't ever justify the cost of one. Well with our Italy trip fast approaching, I figured it was as good a time as any to ask for one. Well, it was delivered today!!!

Unfortunately, spring hasn't *quite* sprung here in MA, so there's not a ton to take pictures of outside. My tulips are starting to poke through though, and I always have my favorite photo subject (Sox) to fall back on!

Italia!

2010-03-19T18:03:00.006-04:00

One of the more exciting things going on in life is our upcoming trip to Italy! We will see Venice, Florence, the Amalfi Coast/Capri, and Rome. We absolutely can. not. wait!! This is one vacation we've always wanted to take and I can't believe it's approaching so quickly. My brother-in-law (Tim's younger brother) has been studying abroad in Rome this semester and we will be heading over there as his semester ends and traveling around with him and Tim's parents (good thing I love my in-laws!)

We haven't finalized everything we're doing over there, but among the things I'm looking forward to are a gondola ride in Venice, a cooking class in Florence, and a day trip to Capri. I'm also hoping to see Pompeii and obviously all the sights in Rome.

In other news...I will be 25 in 26 days (April 14 for those of you who don't want to count!). I feel like that's a real "adult" age. I guess I should get used to it since I graduated from college 3 years ago, have owned a house for 2 years, and have been married for a year and a half!

it's that time again

2010-03-15T17:55:00.008-04:00

for more house projects!

We haven't officially started anything, but I think we'll be renovating our upstairs bathroom at some point this year. I'm hoping sooner rather than later - I'm dying to get something else crossed off our list!

Currently, the bathroom looks like this:

(excuse the grime - no matter what I do, this is as clean as it gets)

And here's what we'd like to do:

use tile like this in the tub/shower. We'll replace the tub with a fiberglass one and hopefully do a small tile surround.

We want to put in a double vanity. There is space for one, we just have to figure out the logistics of piping in a second sink. We're thinking white, maybe with beadboard on the door panels. We'll probably do a corian counter that coordinates with whatever tile we use in the shower.

We'll also be taking all the teal tile off the walls and floors. We'll be putting up new drywall and painting (probably a nice pale tealish-blue) and tiling the floor (coordinating with the shower of course)

The other project we have is landscaping. Remember all the work we had done outside last year? Well the time has finally (almost) come to landscape!! For the past 6 months our house has looked to barren with no shrubs, flowers, etc around. I can't wait to make our house look more homey! I will definitely be updating over the next few weeks/months as we get stuff done.

privacy please!

2010-03-14T13:50:00.003-04:00

I've decided to make my blog private, but I don't want to lose the followers I have!

Leave a comment with your email address, or if you don't want your email address out there, you can email me at mrst2008 at gmail dot com (or if you have my other email address, you can email me there too!)

I'll wait about a week to make sure everyone sees this!

updates to our bedroom

2009-12-29T15:24:00.005-05:00

So our new duvet came today and it's awesome. The pictures don't do it justice because it's a silk cover, so it shines with the light. I also love the paint color I chose to repaint with (it's Benjamin Moore Grant Beige if anyone happens to be interested). Someday I'll get the shams and some throw pillows :)

Just to compare - here's the old room vs the new room (you can click on it to zoom in):

new bed

2009-12-21T18:51:00.002-05:00

You know you're an adult when you get excited over things like new furniture. As sort of a Christmas gift to ourselves (and as our solution to my parents' pending overnight visit and therefore our need for a guest bed), the husband and I have upgraded to a king size bed. We also bought the sleigh bed that matches the bedroom set we bought this past spring. It was delievered today and I L.O.V.E. it and we don't even have bedding yet (that was on the Christmas list - though we do have sheets and a blanket).

Over our upcoming winter break, I'm hoping to repaint our room (finally! and I have a good excuse!) while Tim is skiing. I'm 99% sure the paint on the walls doesn't go with the duvet we are hoping to get so what better reason to repaint like I've been itching to do?!

Without further ado, here is our new bed:

And here is the duvet we asked for:

Hopefully in a week or so I'll have pictures of our "new" room!

Christmas Decorations

2009-12-02T21:29:00.004-05:00

As I previously mentioned, it didn't take me long to break out the Christmas decorations after we got home from our Thanksgiving trip to the Cape.

our tree

our stockings hung by the fire with care :)

garland on the railing - there are lights, but you can't see them

I wish we could decorate the outside (I do have wreaths on the doors and garland and a big red bow on our light post), but aside from the minor issue of having no bushes due to the work done outside this summer, we also have only one exterior electrical outlet, and it's in the backyard.

I can't believe it's December already. I don't know where this year has gone! Three weeks from today I will officially be on Christmas vacation (yes, we still get a winter break - the company Tim and I both work for shuts down between Christmas Eve and New Years Day - it's awesome. It will be a much needed 11 days off, even though I fear I may end up working some since our big project is going live the day we return to work.

Before we know it, it will be 2010. Time needs to slow down a little!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-12-01T20:51:00.002-05:00

Happy belated Thanksgiving! We traveled down to the Cape and had Thanksgiving with my parents who were up from Virginia, and my sister (who lives in Boston). Then we had Thanksgiving 2 with my in-laws (also on the Cape) on Saturday. It was great to get away for a long weekend before the next 3½ busy weeks of work before the Christmas holiday.

Tim, Me, and Lucy (my parents' dog)

Thanksgiving being over means it's Christmas season! It is my absolute favorite time of year. Within 10 minutes of getting home from the Cape on Sunday, I had started decorating. The tree is up and decorated, the stockings are hung, and the wreaths are on the doors. Now if only I could get motivated to do some Christmas shopping or even to make a list of my Christmas wishes that my family keeps asking for!

In other news, our Breast Cancer 3-Day team is already prepping for our walk next July and we're growing!! Because of our success and awesome experience, our team now has 8 people on it and we're expecting at least another 3 to join! I'm amazed that we can go from 4 to 11 people in just one year. Before I know it, it will be time to start fundraising again!

it's been a while

2009-11-15T13:02:00.004-05:00

With house projects wrapping up and work getting really busy, I've been a very bad blogger!

Even though we don't have a real guest bed (we have a pull-out sofa), I have been eyeing a comforter set from JCPenney that I finally bought. I had been hesitant to spend money on bedding for a room we don't have a bed for, but it's been on clearance for a few weeks and I had a gift card. Well on Friday I was browsing website and they had dropped the price to $80 (original price was $270) and the set includes the comforter, 2 shams, and a bedskirt. I can't wait for it to come!

We recently spent the entire weekend in Boston for one of Tim's cousin's wedding (Tim was a groomsman, so we were there Friday for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner and the wedding was Saturday). It was a gorgeous weekend and it was nice to get "away" for the weekend even if we were only half an hour from home. The only downside was that Tim lost his iPhone in a cab on Friday night.

The wedding was in this amazing location - here is the view from the ballroom. We were 33 stories up. Spectacular.

We stayed in a hotel near Boston Harbor. The morning of the wedding we took a walk along the harbor. Here we are, revisiting the spot where we got engaged in July 2007.

And here's a picture of us from the wedding:

As I said before, work has been so busy - I'm averaging close to 50 hours a week right now (which is nice because I do get paid overtime, it's not nice because I'm stressed and worn out!). Luckily there are only 8 work days until Thanksgiving and then another 18 work days after that until Christmas (and my company shuts down from 12/24 until after the new year, so I have about 2 weeks off!).

After that, I actually anticipate being in a new position. From June until just recently I had been on "loan" to another group within my company and I really enjoyed the work and the people and I expressed an interest in switching divisions so that I could continue working on the project I have been helping out with. Last week they opened a job posting for me and this coming week I anticipate working through the logistics of salary and transition time. I'm anxious to see how it plays out. It's a pretty sure thing (at this point, I'd be shocked if the move didn't happen), but since it's still not 100% official, I'm a little on edge about it all. I'm excited about it - the job will be much closer to home (the 2 offices I could potentially work at are both less than 20 minutes from our house - as opposed to my current 45 minute commute) and it will keep me involved with a project where I will hopefully continue to get a lot of visibility. Cross your fingers that everything continues to go smoothly!

anniversary recap

2009-10-04T20:29:00.003-04:00

A little delayed, but I wanted to post about our first anniversary celebration. Last Monday was our actual anniversary and we both took the day off work. We didn't do too much most of the day, but we had tickets to the Red Sox game that night, so we went into Boston late afternoon and headed over to one of our favorite places:

We got there early enough that we saw the end of batting practice - here's Tim walking down to get closer to the field.

Happy 1 Year to us!

September 28, 2009 :)

The club was also celebrating Red Sox legend, Johnny Pesky's 90th birthday (which was on the 27th). He got to throw out the ceremonial first pitch

It was a beautiful night...

until 9:15...

Needless to say, we went home. The game was called, the Sox lost 11-5 or something like that. So it wasn't a great way to end our 1st anniversary, but oh well!

I have a couple more things to post about, but those will have to wait.

1 year of wedded bliss

2009-09-28T11:35:00.005-04:00

here's to many, many more!

anniversary countdown - the bride and groom

2009-09-26T11:35:00.000-04:00

last, but certainly not least, pictures of the two most important people from our wedding - US!

Tim getting ready

me getting ready

formal shots

<3 Happy 1st Anniversary to us <3

anniversary countdown - the ceremony and reception

2009-09-25T15:08:00.006-04:00

This post is picture-heavy. I had a hard time narrowing it down!

The ceremony site all ready

going into the pro-shop/staging area

my dad, always finding time for golf :)

Danny - he did such a wonderful job

here we go!

Tim seeing me for the first time

down the aisle

at the altar

you may kiss the bride!

husband and wife!

getting introduced at the reception

first dance

cutting the cake

dancing with Dad

Tim dancing with his mom

coming next - the bride and groom :)

anniversary countdown - the wedding party

2009-09-24T21:47:00.008-04:00

Continuing on my countdown of favorite wedding photos - here are pictures of our wonderful wedding party, plus one of our awesome family!

We wouldn't be where we are today without these people

Our ring-bearer

the girls

my Penn State track girls!

the boys

friends since high school!

all of us

tomorrow - the ceremony and reception

anniversary countdown - the details

2009-09-22T21:55:00.007-04:00

Since our 1 year anniversary is next Monday, I wanted to dedicate my posts this week to my favorite wedding pictures! Today, the details :)

Close-up of my dress

The back - my favorite part!

The bouquets - mine was the red one

Our wedding bands

The tables

Centerpieces

I made all of the paper details - here they are!

The programs

Reserved seating signs - I made one for each of our parents
The table menus

The table numbers - they were named after famous Red Sox players

Our table escort cards

And last, but certainly not least, our fabulous cake. The top didn't make it through the first year (because we ate it when we got home from our honeymoon).

Next up - wedding party pictures!

Granny's Banana Bread

2009-09-21T15:15:00.003-04:00

I went on a baking frenzy at about 6pm last night - at the end of it, we had 3 banana breads!
I brought one to work today, one is for Tim, one is for us to bring to his parents this weekend.

This recipe I got from my mom who got it from her mom (my granny). It is delicious and gets rave reviews from everyone who eats it!

ingredients
1 stick butter, softened
1¼ C sugar
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas (here's a secret - when bananas get so ripe that they're not really good to eat, toss them in the freezer. Then, when you want to make bread, let them thaw - they look gross, but are super mushy and easy to mash into the batter.)
4 Tbsp sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1½ C flour

directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Beat together the butter and sugar
3. Stir in the eggs, sour cream, vanilla, soda, salt, and bananas
4. Stir in the flour, a little at a time
5. Grease a loaf pan (or 2 small loaf pans) and pour the batter in.
6. Bake for 60-75 minutes (time is dependent on your oven) or until a knife/toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

**DO NOT - I repeat - DO NOT, open the oven until the very end of the cooking time (after 50 minutes it should be safe). Doing so could cause the bread to collapse in on itself in the middle. It will still taste the same, but it looks pretty ugly.

Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

my (boring) life

2009-09-16T10:42:00.002-04:00

apparently nothing all that exciting happens outside of our house renovations. I haven't blogged in over 2 weeks and have very little to report. The husband is working on a few small projects (building small retaining walls around the yard and finally hanging the drywall in the breezeway around the new door - pictures forthcoming).

This weekend we have a family wedding to go to (one of Tim's cousins) so that should be fun. One of the great things about his family is that all 12 cousins range in age from 18 to 27 so there always seems to be an abundance of weddings. We had one in 2007, two in 2008 (including ours) and two this year and a couple more sure to come in the coming years. I'm excited to go to my first post-my-wedding wedding. The last family wedding we had was 4 weeks before our wedding and I may have been a little sidetracked making notes of details I liked, etc.

On that note, our 1st anniversary is in 12 days. I can't believe it - this year has seriously flown by. No huge plans - we're going to the Red Sox game that night and will take half/all of Monday off work so that we can head into Boston early before the game. And since I wasn't blogging until early this year, I never posted about our wedding. Starting Monday (which will be one week until our anniversary), I'll post a week-long countdown of my favorite pictures (this idea was stolen from one of my followers, Katie!).

the baby bug

2009-08-30T15:14:00.002-04:00

I'm surrounded and constantly taunted. By babies. And pregnant women. We're still at least a year away from trying (that's if I get my way) but I have permanent baby fever right now. On Friday I had lunch with a friend who's adorable little boy is almost 4 months old. Then last night we had dinner with good friends of ours who are expecting their first in February. She has a cute little baby bump and was glowing. I know why we're waiting (house projects, money, Tim just isn't ready yet, etc) and I really am ok with it - but it doesn't stop me from day-dreaming! Hopefully the next year of marriage flies by as quickly as this first one did and we'll be more in a place where we're both ready to expand our family.

On a similar note - on Friday night we were talking about aforementioned expecting friends and Tim asks when babies start walking. A little confused I told him the average is about 1 year old and asked why he was curious. He said "when J & A's baby starts walking I'll probably think 'we should have one of these cute little things'". I couldn't help but chuckle and secretly start plotting how to get their unborn child to be the earliest walking infant ever... :)

summer relaxation

2009-08-30T15:06:00.004-04:00

We can now use our patio to relax on great summer nights (like tonight!). Tim came home from Sears this morning saying he found a great patio set. We go back to look at it and it's perfect. And on sale! Then we got it at even more of a discount because the floor model was all they had left. We can't wait to grill out tonight and enjoy our new patio!

And I finally got some window treatments for our downstairs bedroom (aka my craft room). They were on clearance at Target but there were only 3. So I improvised and cut one in half then sewed up the edges and put those on the single window. It worked out perfectly because a whole panel on each side would have been too big for that window.

And I have to include a shot of my little boy. Here's Sox doing what he does best - lounging

walkway done!

2009-08-25T17:19:00.005-04:00

I was so happy to come home to a finished walkway and wall! Now we just have to plant some grass seed this fall and we'll tackle the garden beds in the spring!

pretty wall

Finally - no more contractors. At least for a while!

walkway and other updates

2009-08-24T17:35:00.006-04:00

It's still hot here but the mason guys keep truckin' away! Today they finished the walkway and the bulk of the small retaining wall. They also hauled away all the dirt that was piled in front of our house.

looking from the driveway to the front door

close-up of the wall

looking from the front door to the driveway

And one of our new lights is up! We're just waiting for more of the white mounting blocks and then they will all be up! I got these lights for my birthday (in April) from my parents and they've been waiting to be installed since we didn't want to put them up until the siding was done.

And our new garage door! Tim and his cousin did this for 6 hours on Sunday - after coming home from an all-night bachelor party. I was so impressed :) (The door is white even though the shade makes it look gray-ish)

And for good measure - another shot of the front of our house - complete with new garage door and no dirt piles.

walkway

2009-08-21T16:37:00.005-04:00

Despite day #5 of our heatwave, our mason guys were here today laying our front walkway. So far so good!

obsessed part 2

2009-08-19T18:19:00.004-04:00

They are just about done with our siding! Just a few touch-ups tomorrow morning and they say they'll be finished.

And our patio is finished! LOVE it

even more house updates

2009-08-18T17:23:00.005-04:00

Don't roll your eyes at me! I have already admitted to being obsessed with the progress being made to our house :)

Despite being almost 100 degrees today, our contractors were hard at work!

I was so surprised to come home and find the front of our house finished!

And our patio! It looks a.w.e.s.o.m.e! Now we only need some patio furniture...

The siders still say they hope to be done tomorrow - so we'll see. It's doable I think, but it's supposed to be another hot one.