birthday postcard project

This past March Hero Hubby celebrated a milestone birthday. I couldn't arrange a big bash as I had hoped to, so I thought an elaborate birthday card would be a great way to gather birthday wishes from friends and family near and far. I created a bunch of postcards and sent them to friends and family with instructions to write birthday notes and mail back to the birthday boy. Here's the note I included:

Dear Friends and Family, I’ve put together a little birthday project for Paul to usher him into his 40th year! It’s a fun project that everyone can participate in. Basically, I’ve printed up a series of postcards that spell out “Happy 40th Birthday to Paul!” Each postcard represents one letter of the birthday wish and each family and friend is receiving one postcard. Please write a note to Paul and pop it in the mail so he can complete his birthday card. Thanks! Love, Marissa

Then, I strung up a bunch of clothes pins and numbered them. As cards came in the mail, Hero Hubby clipped up the corresponding cards and the full message took shape. It was great fun seeing him reading all the heart-felt notes and pictures everyone sent. Well, it's taken me this long to get my act together and finally post the results. Thanks to everyone who made his day extra bright and special! I'm going to post this project as a free printable in a separate post, but in the meantime post a comment if you would like me to send you the file for download right away!

it's not what you think

Before my family starts calling me after seeing the picture in this post, let me say that this is not a recent picture (do you think I'm that crazy). No, this is my pregnant belly from over a year ago when our second baby girl (at the time we did not know she was a she) was swimming around, growing and growing. Just a bit of nostalgia on this crisp Tuesday morning. Seeing this picture made me think about what a strange yet completely natural experience pregnancy is. For a brief moment in a woman's life she is actually physically inside herself - nurturing herself as her baby develops into a being who will become completely separate and independent of her. Perhaps I'm ruminating on the subject since Laela is now nine months old and I see her need me less and less each month. She's crawling, feeds herself, holds her own bottle... motherhood is full of intensities of love and beauty, but it's also very heartbreaking too.

easter pictures

have a {happy} weekend

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a vermont weekend

Hero Hubby and I took the girls up to Vermont and enjoyed a relaxing, rustic weekend (as relaxing as you can be with a baby and a tot) on a maple syrup farm owned by one our family members. Though we hoped for snow shoeing and sled races, we had rather mild weather and instead delighted in visiting The Vermont Country Store and a strolling down a few of the trails on some 100 acres of beautiful land. A little family bonding around the wood stove, homemade cookies and fresh country air made for an excellent adventure. Oh, yeah... the hour long soak in the whirlpool tub didn't hurt either.

thanks, mum

The roses my mother brought us for valentine's day are still perfuming the kitchen with their light, sweet scent and are a colorful stand-out against the dreary backdrop of this morning's rain. I hope you have a rosy weekend (whatever the weather may be).

wordless wednesdays

chocolate for breakfast

Nutella is magic. I haven't made anything that tasted bad when Nutella has been involved. This recipe for a french toast bake did not disappoint. Instead of baking a large "caserole," I made individual 8 oz ramekins and prepared it all the night before so the egg mixture could really soak into the bread. I changed a few things from the original recipe: 1. I used Scala bread rather then the called for mulitgrain bread (I've found that denser breads like multigrain make for a tougher outcome). 2. I adjusted the recipe by half and only used two sliced bananas. I'm definitely keeping this recipe in my breakfast repertoire - I might even try it with day old croissants in place of bread.

I highly recommend making a little Nutella sauce as described in the recipe to drizzle over the top before serving. Our guests loved this take on french toast! Ok, I'm getting hungry just typing this post... and also inspired to write a post about all the "make ahead" breakfast/brunch recipes I've tried over the past few years. It's much more fun to just make the coffee and pour the mimosas in the morning rather than have to whip up a full meal, don't you think? Keep an eye out for that upcoming post!

recipe via needful things

snowy day

Happy Friday, Dear Readers. Another two inches of snow out here today - this is the kind of winter I like. Being New England, however, I'm sure there's some whopper of a snowstorm headed our way before the winter is over. For now, we're enjoying this gentle re-acquaintance with the snow.
 

and the winner is...

Joanne! A pair of sky blue bonbon Earrings is headed your way. Thanks for participating in the give-away!

Today I was awakened by the gleeful cries of a toddler who wakes up to see the first winter snowfall. "We need a sled... make a snowman... MAMA... DADA... QUICK!" It was the nicest sounding alarm clock, but then I realized I couldn't hit "snooze" and sleep for ten more minutes. So, I sit here typing a post while Violet is picking out which pair of snow boots to wear and Laela is happily chewing on something soft (a blanket? a stuffed animal? I can't tell... don't have my glasses on - a pair of little hands snapped them last week). If you are gearing up to tumble through the snow today, I wish you good luck, warmth and lots of coffee, tea, hot chocolate or whatever warms you (bourbon? I won't judge) at the end of a winter adventure.


image via gabbysworld

best chocolate cupcakes ever

I would not make such a dramatic claim if this were not true. Of course, we all have different ideas of what "best ever" really means everything is relative. Since I'm a sweets junkie, I cannot be relied upon to objectively rate baked goods, so I put these chocolate cupcakes to the test by swaying my Hero Hubby to try one (the man does not like sweets, crazy right?!) They passed with flying colors. Thus, this recipe is now filed in the "best ever" section in my recipe book. Try them with vanilla buttercream frosting and you and your sweet (or not-so-sweet) tooth will not be disappointed. My little sweet liked them too!

recipe via SimplyRecipes

move over, June

Someday I will wield a glittery pink spatula while wearing an apron with frilly white trim that nips my waist in and makes me look like a baking goddess while I effortlessly make (from scratch!) cookies in all sorts of ingenious flavors. Someday.... or, perhaps never now that I have found a prepared cookie dough that tastes like it came from the oven of June Cleaver and is made with all natural ingredients. Joy! After a weekend of drunken debauchery (perhaps just a few too many cocktail parties), house chores and general child related chaos, The Hubs and I were ready to relax. It's almost physically impossible for me to relax without quelling my voracious sweet tooth. Since the oven was still hot from having cooked dinner, I decided to pop a few (ok, eight) little rounds of Triple Chocolate cookie dough by Immaculate Baking Co. How liberating it felt to simply break off however many cookies I wanted to bake, plop them onto a pan and bake for ten minutes. Yum! Considering the speed at which we ate these cookies, they could very well be re-named Vanishing Triple Chocolate. Enjoying a treat without having to clean up a cataclysm of batter and bowls was a divine way to end the weekend. No frilly aprons necessary.

image via muffintopmommy

nobody sleeps...

...when the kids are sick. Yes, I have the daunting task of managing a sick toddler, sick baby and sick self this week. Hopefully it's only a short bout of stuffy noses, mild fevers and loss of sleep (thanks, daylight savings, for f*cking up our sleep schedules). To think that just a week ago Violet was "doing make-up" while Hero Hubby and I got dressed up for a Halloween party. I can't promise a week full of amazing blog posts, but I'm already thinking about some comfort food to get us through this not-so-fun time. A rustic apple tart... some beef and barley soup? I'll keep you posted.

dear Instagram...

Dear Instagram,

Why are you only available for iphone and ipad? I love the retro-y look you cast over photos and your homage to the beloved Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid aesthetic. You could make my images impossibly hip, but alas, I don't have an iphone or ipad. 

Boo-hoo,
Marissa 

Lucky for all of us not in the iclub, Daniel Box has created a fabulous assortment of photoshop actions that are much like those killer instagram filters. Here are examples of all the filters. The original image is at the bottom. I especially like "sutro" and "brannan." The next step is to get some prints and see how these filters look in the flesh. These will be so cute printed up as postcards to send to the grandparents. Thanks, Dan, for making these!

 

 

 

 

 

 

a perfect autumn breakfast

Good morning, dear readers, I hope you enjoyed the weekend and are looking forward to the week ahead. I am still dwelling on Sunday morning's simple, yet delicious breakfast with my family. The day started out damp and drizzley, but by 8:00 the sun had started to slice through the clouds to reveal a perfect autumn morning. Apple turnovers, I thought and swiftly brought a roll of puff pastry dough out of the freezer to defrost while I prepared the apple filling. Incredibly tasty and with such a fancy appearance, apple turnovers are very easy to make. I like to keep a few rolls of store-bought puff pasty dough in my freezer, but here is a recipe to make the dough from scratch.

APPLE TURNOVERS
1. preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Unfold thawed puff pastry on lightly floured surface. Roll each sheet into a 12-inch square and cut into four squares.
2. core, peel and slice 2-3 Granny Smith apples
3. place apples in skillet (use a cast iron skillet f you have it) with 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, pinch of salt and a few shakes of nutmeg and cook over medium heat until the apples and soft.
4. place about 1/4 cup apple mixture in center of each square. Brush edges with water. Fold over to form triangles, seal edges firmly with a fork. Place on baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes or until golden. 5. sprinkle with sugar and let cool on wire rack.

the baby list

Maybe there's something in the proverbial water, but so many of my friends are expecting their first babies in the very near future! The baby topic is something I am rather current on, especially the "gear" parents find themselves knee-deep in once their tiny package arrives. Ever tending toward the minimalist approach, I have found a handful of products helpful essential to my daily baby rearing routine. Clothing and diapers aside, here's my bare-bones baby list:

puj tub
baby bjorn
mountain buggy
calma bottle
skip hop diaper changing
skip hop farmyard mat
bloom coco lounger

have a restful weekend

Good morning, dear readers, and what a good morning it is in our house! Baby no. 2 (aka Laela) has finally slept through the night, giving her mum and dad a much needed night filled with consecutive hours of slumber. I wanted to create a long post of all our Labor Day weekend plans, but my little alarm clock did not wake me up at 3:00am (yes I have been blogging in the wee hours). So, I will be crafting a heavy dose of sparkly things for you over the weekend and will post again on Tuesday. I hope you have a restful weekend!

motherhood

Today I am already nostalgic for baby Laela's infant-hood. It was no so long ago that Violet was a snuggley ten pound-er with shiny, unblinking eyes that would stare up at me from a swaddle of blankets. These days she is talking, drawing, running, dancing... everything an energetic toddler does. The snuggles are rare and the unblinking stares, fleeting. As I gaze at Laela asleep in her moses basket, I know it won't be too long before my tiny baby becomes a little girl and races off to keep up with her big sister.

dinner tonight

Violet is off at Camp Grandmum's and I am fleet of foot - well, as much as one can be with a six week old.  I had forgotten how portable (I love my baby carrier) and non-opinionated an infant is, so Hero Hubby and I are going to enjoy a nice, quite dinner at home.  I will be making this simple, no fuss chicken with artichoke hearts and pasta dish.  With any luck mine will look as good as the picture... not sure what that beverage is in the glass, but on my dinner table it will definitely be a chilled pinot grigio*.


INGREDIENTS
Coarse salt and ground pepper 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 8 thin chicken cutlets (about 1 1/2 pounds total) 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth 1 can (14 ounces) artichoke hearts packed in water, rinsed, drained, and quartered 2 tablespoons rinsed and drained capers 2 tablespoons butter 8 ounces angel-hair pasta 1/2 cup parsley leaves

DIRECTIONS
Set a large pot of salted water to boil. Place flour in a shallow dish, and season with salt and pepper. Dredge cutlets, shaking off excess. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Cook chicken in batches, adding remaining oil as needed, until light golden, 1 to 3 minutes per side; transfer to a dish.

Add broth to skillet, and bring to a boil; cook until reduced by half. Add artichokes, capers, and the chicken with any juices. Gently swirl to combine, and bring just to a boil. Remove skillet from heat. Swirl in butter, and cover to keep warm.

Add pasta to boiling water. Cook until al dente; drain. Serve chicken and sauce over pasta, topped with parsley.

*fun fact: artichokes affect your taste buds to enhance sweet flavors and thus altering the virtue of your vino.  So I'll break out the cheap stuff during dinner and enjoy a little (just a little since I'm nursing) limoncello afterwards. 

splendid summer day

As I sit here listening to the rain pelt the windows and the wind sweep across the house as if it were trying to toss us into the marsh, I am fondly reminiscing of the not-so-distant beach day we enjoyed several weeks ago.  Ah, those wonderfully hot sunny days and long easy stretches into dusk - the stuff of summer.  I hope the fall doesn't sneak up and steal summer away too fast.  Though it might, I am glad I have this photo to remember the summer baby Laela joined our family.