cheers {to another weekend}!

I don't know how long this is gonna last (just because that's the kind of girl I am ;) ) but Kristen inspired me and I'm going to attempt to do a Friday Cocktail Series. Starting now!

first up ... Ginger Martini (you might have heard me mention these before ...)

Ginger Martini
3 oz. Rain Organic Vodka (I've made it with other vodkas - they work)

1.5 oz. Stone's ginger black currant wine (Albanians - Warehouse has this)

Shake Vodka and Stone's in a shaker with ice.


LIGHTLY coat the glass with honey.
 Pour and enjoy.


(can be served on the rocks (my preference) or straight up)


Stay tuned (at least to see how long it lasts!).

recipe courtesy of Basmati's via my bartending friend Mark(ster) (opposite fonts throughout recipe, my notes ;) )

h a p p y   w e e k e n d !

Baby Blooms

I'm so excited about my magnolia tree's impending blooms.

I think they look like little ducklings right now!
-abf-

happy tape!

Last night I packed the first box, so we're officially moving. To motivate myself to pack another box (or 70), I ordered this. It makes me feel happy and organized (oh yeh, because my plan is to color coordinate the boxes. and yes, i only came up with six categories...).

What's for Dinner

I know I am developing a bad habit of only blogging about things our blog is not (supposed to be) about ...

To that notion, you have to try this. I'm honestly not an advocate of frozen food - really - but this is just so good I break my rule for it, often. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

{Man, I crack myself up. While Jora and Joslyn take time out of their overwhelmingly busy lives to whip up genius and decadent meals for their babies, I'm feeding my (adult) family (which actually only consists of my husband and myself) something that only requires pre-heating the oven?! Sheesh!}

Monday

I don’t know how your Mondays go..but mine usually involve lots of crying, screaming, running a bit late, trying to rip off clothes that i “suggested” they wear to school, hurt feelings, sleepy kids not wanting to brush teeth or hair or even move..  Despite all of that, I had high hopes today on getting all of our frames posted to you, but it’s Monday and things just don’t get done like you’d like!

I DID take the pictures and instead of posting on Etsy, we will post them all on here first for YOU to have first pick!  But not until tomorrow – I will organize them all tonight (assuming all goes as planned) and get them to you tomorrow.  

And I will leave you with these last 2 pictures to make you smile on a Monday. I love these children in the picture below…. Can you name them all?

Last Wednesday…

As you  may have noticed in my shout out to Shanna – her baby Luke was born, they are doing well (after a bit of a scare in the hospital!) and I snapped a photo on his first day of life…of Annabelle, who is IN LOVE (to say the least) with “my Luke”. 

More tomorrow!!

lake

I’m not sure how many times we can apologize for lack of posts (and unrelated to frames) before you decide to never read our blog again…but I’m hoping this isn’t the time :)

Last week my kids were on spring break and i was able to spend a few days at my parents’ lake house not far from here.  We love it there and can’t wait to head that way to spend a lot of time this summer! 

Note the picture below: my children take notes and make lists a lot.   I can’t imagine what kind of notes Molly is taking but she looks like she is 13 here..and MJ 14.  *sigh*

if you are my mom’s friend on facebook you know what she’s doing in the picture below..if not, become her friend..there will be no mystery as to what she is doing.  ever. (through pictures)

Jim is Mills’ favorite person in the world.  If it wasn’t so sweet I would be seriously jealous

just to keep it real….VERY soon after this picture was taken Mills took a bite out of MJ’s hand…no blood drawn, but lots of tears and some serious teeth marks left.   

After all of that… the children went home and some college friends came down! yay!!  we had so much fun..looking through old pictures, catching up, laughing, eating, drinking, SLEEPING

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We all had so much fun and really (except for the fact we are much more sober, make much better decisions, and aren’t quite as lazy)…we are all pretty much the same :) 

we had a mini frame show (that included only us - these frames ARE for sell, we just haven’t gotten them up on etsy..but SOON, i promise)

and returned home to this…

Lastly – i have to say Happy Birthday (yesterday) to Shanna’s precious baby Luke and happy 30th to my precious friend Laura Leigh.

Have a great weekend! 

just what life ordered…

This weekend I am going away for a kid-free lake weekend with old college friends (yay!) So in honor of my relaxing weekend (and here's to hoping YOU have one!), here are a few fun spring drinks... enjoy!

lemonade mimosa



1/3 champagne
2/3 pink lemonade

wine spritzer


6 oz. white wine
3 oz. lemon lime seltzer water
1 slice lemon
1 slice lime
serve over ice and garnish with lemon or lime

knock you naked margaritas



12 oz. sprite
12 oz. tequila (i do 6 oz. because i’m a wimp and honestly – don’t care to be knocked naked these days)
12 oz. corona
12 oz. frozen limeade
serve over ice and garnish with lime

enjoy!

goin’ barefoot & being a mom

Tomorrow is April 8 and I would like for you all to do one simple thing. Go barefoot for the day.

One Day Without Shoes is an event hosted by Toms Shoes (if you don’t know about these…check them out here, love them!) On April 8, thousands are going barefoot to spread awareness of the impact that a pair of shoes can have on a child's life. And Toms donates a pair of shoes for every shoe sold to a child in need. One for one…how amazing is that?!

Well a few weeks ago i was browsing some regular blogs…I came across this. Tammi Nowack is a local, amazing photographer who wanted people to get involved. It got my wheels turning and I decided to host my own event for MJ’s pre-K class. I’m always trying to get it through to mj & molly (and eventually mills) how there are people out there less fortunate and we should give as much as we can. Only problem - it’s really hard for kids this age to wrap their precious little minds around. SO in come One Day Without Shoes – I thought, perfect! I think this is something the kids can get! April 8 just so happens to be during our spring break, so i planned to go talk to the kids a week early on april 1st.

So that’s the barefoot part – on to being a mom. I try, many days, I fail..but i do try to be a mom and a good one. There are many days where we are all in tears, frustration has boiled over, i’ve cleaned up so much poop i feel like it has sunk into my skin, and i can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. Then, there are days like this…. when I take the extra step to teach my kids something and it works. it works…she listened, she got it. it worked. Here it is -

Taking all the wonderful knowledge i had from ondaywithoutshoes.com, i set off to talk to a group of barefoot 4 & 5 year olds about giving to others. They seemed to listen, they definitely had fun telling me why we need shoes, and 3 times – i asked the question..”so why are you barefoot today?” and really, they couldn’t tell me – they knew it was fun, they had some funny answers, but none were the answers I was looking for (which was - “to help us remember that some kids don’t have shoes and how we should give what we can to help those less fortunate”) yes – a mouthful for a 4 year old, but i had hope. So for days after I asked MJ – and she still just blurted out “it was fun! or so ants won’t bite us!” but not the answer i was looking for.

And then there was the moment when she got it (or at least the moment she revealed to me she got it). The night before Easter, my sister & her husband were in town, eating with us and mj told her aunt Kathryn that they were barefoot at school! I said – can you tell her why? Expecting the answers i got in class and on the following days after the event. But instead she said – “because, you know, some children don’t have shoes and we should help and give them some".

she got it! I’ve never been prouder (of her) and i just hope it sunk in with her friends and that eventually they came to the same conclusion. I especially have high hopes for the little girl that offered to take the shoes off her feet to donate. And she even knew what donate meant “sounds kinda like doughnut but it’s not..it’s donate and it’s when you give something.” That girl is going somewhere.

So… since you are grown and reading this…take your shoes off and let it sink in. Thank you Tammi for getting me going and thank you Toms for providing the opportunity.

to know her is to love her

and whether you know her or love her or haven't ever even heard of her, please, today

pray

for

Ruthie


{learn more here}

you might remember a couple of illustrations of her loveliness from here and here...

my baby is one

mills

she’s one.  she is loveable, funny, happy, and healthy and we had a sweet & simple family party for her to celebrate her first year of life. 

 

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love her.

currently obsessed with...

I've been such an absent blogger. I'm sorry. It looks like I might continue to be for a bit. I'm sorry for that too (or you're welcome, whatever works for you). If there is a word for exaggerated overwhelmingness, that's what I've been (if there is such a word, I'm too overwhelmed to think of it). As goes with being distracted by real life, I'm not exactly inspired enough to blog about anything worthwhile, so I'm just sharing a few of my current obsessions with you. Ya know, just to show you I care ;)

everything ginger

You may have read of my adoration for the delectable ginger martini i've been seeing everywhere lately. Well, I can't have those every day. But these, I can. and do:

{Little Bottles of} Ginger Ale: No, I haven't discovered a new or different brand or kind of ginger ale. I just can't stop drinking it. For some reason (I'm thinking it has something to do with cocktails), we have all of these small glass bottles of ginger ale in our fridge and i literally cannot. stop. drinking. them. They're perfect. They happen to be Schweppes but I don't really think that's the point.

Susansnaps: I'm pretty sure I adore all gingerbread, gingersnaps, etc. but  Susansnaps are - hands down - the best ginger cookie I've ever eaten. ever. If you like this sort of thing, you must try them. Actually, try them anyway. They're that good. If you're local, I am pretty sure you can get them at Place on the Pointe. If they're not (or you're not (local)), you can order them online. And do yourself a favor - do not order the snack pack.

oh yeh ... and music
lately, this has been where it's at.

and lastly, this (and yes, i did check the gap's size chart just to make absolutely sure that there was no possible way i could squeeze any part of my body into any of these pieces. total fail.). if you have children (or are as small as a child), you should definitely check it out.

oh wait - i almost forgot about these. cocoa roasted almonds. are you kidding me (in a good way)?

(ok, so obviously i'm not gonna fit into gap kids clothes any time soon either. oh well. i'm not a kid.)



have

a

happy

thursday

xx