Baby Girl Nursery Ideas

I just love all of the colors in this pictures...
Although there is lots of blue it still screams girlie to me.

I'm not sure where this one came from but it is still cute.

Whimsical and Airy

Whimsical and Asian Inspired

Wouldn't these be fun to have Pom Poms hanging from the ceiling? What girl wouldn't like them? I might have to make some for Hannah as well!

S'More Time!

It's that time of year for us. We bought a fire put for our back yard and put it to good use. We had S'Mores!! It was both Hannah and I second time having them. I lived in Florida for most of life and the last thing that you wanted to do was sit in front of a fire in 90 degree weather, so I guess that is why I had never had a S'More until last year. Crazy, huh?

(I sure wish that Blogger wouldn't distort my pictures. I promise, they come out so much better than what is shown. If anyone has any tips on posting quality pictures on Blogger, I would love to know.)

Carrot Muffins

I SOOO wanted something sweet tonight but I didn't want to eat just plain chocolate chips or just candy. So, I decided to bake Carrot Muffins with mini chocolate chips. For the first time.

Previously about a year or so ago, I was not a baker. I am a cooker. There is so much more freedom when you making meals. You can add stuff or omit stuff. You can get creative and make up your own meals. I have even stumbled upon a meal by just taking the first steps in starting a meal. I started out going in one direction in a meal and turning it into something else. And making it delicious!!

BUT...baking. It is difficult, for me, because you can't stray too far from the recipe. You have to pretty much use exacts. I..don't...like...exacts! But I am learning that it will come out better if I follow the recipe.
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For this Carrot Muffin recipe, I only strayed by added a little bit more Soy Milk because it was so dry. And added the milk proved to be a good decision.

2 cups of flour
1/2 cup dry sweetner
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 medium carrots, grated
3/4 cup soy milk (I probably put in 1 full cup)
egg replacer, equal to two eggs
1/4 melted margarine
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients (Flour, dry sweetner, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon) then add the wet ingredients (carrots, soy milk, egg replacer, margarine). Mix and then bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. (I did it for 13 minutes because I have a gas oven.)
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I drizzled cookie icing on the top just so my family would definitely help me to eat all 24 muffins. I doubled the recipe because it said it only made six muffins. Well, doubling got me 24.

Royal Paper Towel Family

Here is the beginning of our Royal Paper Towel Roll Family. Introducing the King and Queen. Kids will soon follow!

Happy 5th Birthday, Hannah!

This cake was actually REALLY easy! I bought one box of white cake mix. ALL of the rainbow colors in food coloring gel.

Once I mixed the cake (following the box directions), separated the batter into 6 bowls and added the food coloring to make the colored batter.

All I did, seriously, was pour half of the batter from each bowl into the middle of the cake pan. And then again to the other cake pan. It turned out very pretty just sitting in the pan! Somehow the colors mixed like this.

I put both pans into the oven and baked it. I never understood evenly baking until I baked both cakes. I suggest you bake one cake pan at a time. It still came out alright but I wasted a lot of cake because of how unevenly it cooked.

We celebrated Hannah's 5th birthday last month....and collectively decided on a theme together. She had already had a princess theme for her 4th birthday and I wanted to encourage her to have something other than princesses. So, we agreed on a Rainbow Party!! It was fun for both of us. The only thing that she requested was to have a rainbow on top of the cake. I used mostly Skittles and some Jelly Beans. Did you know Skittles doesn't have blue in their candy assortment!?

These are the invitations that we sent out to the invitees!

In no particular order...Introducing Hannah's friends who came to the party!!

My Reason for Not Blogging

My first Trimester I was T-I-R-E-D!! In one word....that's it. I was either sleeping, lying down or sitting. I am now 24 weeks (due around September 5th!!!)...6 months into this pregnancy and I feel pretty good. I have more energy and starting to get my creativity back. I also have tried posting TWO different posts and they went somewhere..not sure where. I am hoping this one makes it and I can successfully start blogging again!

Hannah, who is 5, is very excited about having a baby sister. She is such a natural nurturer and is a little on the bossy side so I can see her fitting into the "Big Sister" role very easily. I decided to homeschool her for Kindergarten this coming school year. And guess what!? That is exactly when this bundle of love is to be born. So, I decided to get a jump on it and bought some curriculum and start teaching her in the summer. I know we will be busy outdoors doing things but I want to have some time when the baby gets here to not have to worry about teaching Hannah.

I can't wait to blog more about teaching Kindergarten. I think I will do fine and so will Hannah. She is at such a teachable time and wants to learn, which makes it less challenging. I'm actually looking forward to it!!

Rainbow Jello

Hannah is turning 5 in 1.5 days (and yes, she is reminding me daily and sometimes hourly) and we are having a small rainbow party on Saturday with her friends! While on the hunt for rainbow themed party fun/food/desserts I came across beautiful rainbow jello in different forms.

This is from Food Librarian. It's called Broken Glass jello...cool, huh?

I found this dessert on Olson Updates. I have always wanted to get this kind of serving bowl. Doesn't it look beautiful!?

I found this beautiful jello mold at Chexydecimal.com.

And this one is a replica of Alcatraz...Jello Style. I found it on Kitchen Monkey. I won't be doing this one...ever...but I thought it looks pretty amazing!

Which one would you like to see at a Rainbow Party???

Bubbles

I was trying to capture the beauty of bubbles! I was amazed to see that each bubble had a different tint to it. I'm not sure why and I haven't tried googling it yet. I think I just want to enjoy the beauty of them.

We loved watching Molly trying to pop the bubbles by eating them.

Beaded Hearts

This is all that you need. Beads with holes big enough to fit through pipe cleaners. I shaped the heart first by bending it in half and then bending the ends to make a heart. It keeps it shape enough for the beads to go on.

We made these pretty little hearts the other day. I am teaching at Hannah's preschool on Friday and our focus is Valentine's Day!! I really like that day because it's filled with hearts and love and it is a special holiday to celebrate the love you have for others. Some people think that it is just a Hallmark holiday, but it's fun!

I wanted to see how this craft turned out with a real life child before I did it with 7 2-4 year olds. I think they will be able to do it.. Even the little ones!

Cute or What!?

I love this dog so much. Molly will be turning 9 years old next month!!! And yet she still seems to have the energy of a 4 year old dog.. go ahead and ask anyone who has met this cute beast. So, it's cold here in Maryland and the last thing that I really want to do is go outside. and take pictures...Plus, I just got a new external flash for my birthday!!! Yay! (I feel incredibly blessed to have this flash!)

Typically you don't need a flash for outside photography. And since it is cold and I just got my flash in the mail today, I took some pictures in our basement. We have pretty good lighting, but I have found that when I take pictures inside, I get yellow undertones. So, I attached the flash, which was SOOOO incredibly easy and started shooting. Right away, I got an awesome picture, the one above. Look at the picture of Molly all the way at the bottom of this post. I took this about a year ago with my camera's original flash.. Do you see a difference??

The above picture of Molly's nose is a little bright and washed out..but I know how to fix that if only she stayed still. The awesome thing about an external flash is that you can point the flash up. I pointed up to the ceiling so it would bounce off of there instead of directly into the subjects face/eyes.

The big thing that amazes me about this flash is the whiteness and crispness of the coloring of the picture. The one above is a little out of focus but you can still see how white it is. A pet-peeve of mine when I shoot pictures, is the yellow under tones..

I love her!!!!