On Sunday my husband declared that it just seemed like a chocolate chip cookie kind of day. Chocolate oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips to be exact. And some with peanut butter chips added on top, just for me.
(I cannot explain the many deficiencies of my husband, namely his indifference to the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, but I love him anyway.)
So, let me tell you something. I am really tired right now. If I keep typing, I am going to make more typos than I probably already have made, and that would be embarrassing. So, I am going to wrap this post up real quick by sharing these few things:
- The recipe is right here (courtesy of Cate’s World Kitchen blog).
- This is my second time making the recipe, so it comes well recommended.
- I’ve added chocolate and peanut butter chips to the recipes both times. Do the same and you won’t be disappointed.
- You might consider adding one less cup of oatmeal (it calls for 4 cups!) just to make the cookies a bit more chewy
- You also might consider making the cookies huge like I did. Just for fun.
And this just might be my shortest recipe post ever. Enjoy it while it lasts.
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To you this might look like just a hamper, but to me it looks like the solution to a small problem that has been driving me batty for more than a year. (Hallelujah!)
Have I ever talked about our laundry situation? I don’t think I have. So, let me start there.
You’ve seen this view of our side entryway about a gazillion-and-one times:
I'm still working on my post-Christmas table vignette; can you tell?
Well, around the corner are two closets. The one on the right is our coat closet and the one on the left houses our washer and dryer.
The color of the walls in this picture is way more true to life than in the picutre above!
The proximity of our washer and dryer to the kitchen and main living area makes it convenient to toss random pieces of laundry in the washing machine at random times. Hand towel that is past its prime? Into the washer. Baby clothes that remain after bath time? Into the washer. Bibs that are so wet and gross you wonder if they’re worth saving? Into the washer.
Now this sounds all well and good until you decide you want to do a load of just whites. Or a load of cloth diapers (which I do every other day). Then you have to dig into the dirty remnants hanging out in the washer and…throw them on the floor.
That’s right, we didn’t have a good place to put the laundry, so it ended up on the floor in a prime viewing location for anyone walking into our house or even coming to our door (hello, UPS lady, here is our dirty laundry).
Not to mention that the pile was inevitably in front of the coat closet door, which meant the pile might get relocated a couple of times over the course of one evening or weekend.
I was totally over it. So, I came up with a simple solution: a hamper to sit right outside of the washer/dryer closet, poised to collect random bits of dirty laundry.
Is it ideal to have a hamper in our entryway? No. Is it better than a pile of dirty laundry? Yes.
Amen for simple solutions. Especially when they are less than $20 at TJMaxx.
Have you come up with any simple solutions in your home this year? Anyone else have semi-convenient/semi-annoying washer and dryer placement?
As if I didn’t mention Pinterest enough in my last post, here I am with some additional inspiration found by way of that addictive site. I mean, what would the new year be without visions of becoming ridiculously organized?
Truly, you should see me eyeing corners of our house these days thinking of all the organizing I can do. Since I don’t have the time to get really organized, I thought I would share some of my favorite ideas that I’ve seen around the interwebs.
If I ever have this many rolls of ribbon, I’m in serious trouble. But it would be worth it just so I could hang them like this!
Source: Uploaded by user via Erin @ DomesticAdventure on Pinterest
I have bobby pins scattered all over the house. I could honestly buy a new package every couple of months and still not know where to find any. Obviously I need this:
Source: sprwmn.blogspot.com via Erin @ DomesticAdventure on Pinterest
Someone on Pinterest commented that this must be at least a hundred dollars worth of cleaning supplies. But they sure look good, right!?
Source: beforeispendit.blogspot.com via Erin @ DomesticAdventure on Pinterest
When I first added our docking station, it looked really good. These days it’s a disaster. Maybe I need to try something like this? If only they would make all devices plug in at the bottom. My BlackBerry plugs in on the side, so it doesn’t line up nicely…
Source: bhg.com via Erin @ DomesticAdventure on Pinterest
Shoe storage is an ongoing issue in our entry way (I even wrote about it last year). I like how this looks. Do you think the owners actually put their shoes in it?
Source: flickr.com via Erin @ DomesticAdventure on Pinterest
Oh, and I have one more to include. How cute is this little soap station on a cake stand?
Source: lehiwrights.blogspot.com via Erin @ DomesticAdventure on Pinterest
If I could accomplish one of these things this year, I would be happy. What about you?
My poor mom. She always ends up with at least one homemade Christmas present, and this year was no different. While in the past I’ve made things that I think she will like (like candle holders and a framed print), this year I made something I knew she would like. You know how I managed that? By stalking her on Pinterest.
Think about it. Those of us who are on Pinterest (find me here) are constantly pinning things we want to make. Will we ever make them all? Probably not. Would we all like a little help in making something on our Pinterest list? Absolutely.
Enter my DIY clothespin and cork memo board (pretend this is hung on the wall not resting on a shelf)…
…which was inspired by this photo that my mom pinned (originally from the one and only Martha)…
Source: marthastewart.com via Erin @ DomesticAdventure on Pinterest
When I saw that my mom had pinned this project, I knew I could tackle it and even improve it. I sound pretty confident, don’t I?
But if you want the honest version, I was too lazy to figure out how to spray paint (as Martha did in the inspiration piece) in the freezing cold weather, so I decided to “upholster” my memo board and then had the bright idea to slide some cork tiles in there. Pretty much genius, if I do say so myself.
And my find of some wood-toned push pins further fueled my spray painting laziness. I mean, with a find like those, I should probably just go with an au naturale wood look, right?
Here are my supplies:
- 1 2×4 ish board that I found in our basement (it is about 3 feet long)
- Cork tiles
- Fabric
- Clothespins (I chose regular size and mini clothespins that I found next to the pushpins)
- Push pins
- Hot glue gun
- Staple gun
- Hanging doohickeys (you know, the things that you can nail to the back of a frame to hang it.)
And here’s how I did it:
- First I cut my cork tiles down to size and hot glued them to the board
- Then I wrapped the fabric around the whole thing and stapled it tightly in the back.
- Learn from my mistake and apply your hanging doohickeys next. Otherwise you’ll be trying to nail in the dohickeys on the back of the board with clothespins on it. True story.
- Then glue your clothespins in place and you’ll be in business.
And you, too, can hang cute pictures of my nephew, Evan, over your desk…
I can’t wait to see what this project looks like when it’s in use at my mom’s house. And now I am considering making my own…I have plenty of cork tile left over!
What do you think? Does this look like something you would do? Would you use bolder fabric or just let the pictures and pieces speak for themselves. Or, is it warm enough to use spray paint at your house this time of year?
Oh, and for a “keep it real” moment. I realized that I needed to photograph this already-wrapped project just moments before packing it in the car for our road trip to Vermont. So, I sent my husband upstairs to change Ike so he wouldn’t see the madness, then swiftly unwrapped it, cleared off a shelf in my hallway, snapped some pictures, placed the items back on the shelf, and wrapped the memo board back up. If that’s not your definition of weird and slightly obsessive, then I don’t know what is.
(By the way, if you’ve not yet joined the Pinterest revolution and would like to, leave a comment and I will send you an invite)
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope your 2012 is off to a good start. I unplugged for a few days and spent a dozen or so hours in the car this past weekend, which gave me the time to think about some goals I have for this here ol’ blog in the coming year.
And since I need to be held accountable, I’m sharing those resolutions with you. Here they are, in no particular order:
- Tweet like I’ve never tweeted before. At the very moment that I am writing this post, I have tweeted exactly 1,000 times (ironic, but true). My best guess is that 980 of those tweets happened before 2011. I just haven’t been very hip to the Twitter this year. Truth be told, I’ve never had many visits from links I post on Twitter, so it’s not the blog traffic I miss…it’s the interaction with all of the cool tweeps (yeah, I said it) out there. Plus, I just hate it when I am not involved in the conversation, and Twitter is just one big conversation, right? So, my Twitter friends, please help keep me on track! (And if you’re not following me yet, find me here.)
- Show a little comment love. Do you know how much I love it when I get a comment on my blog? I love it. I love it a lot. Back at the beginning, I was really good about replying to comments because I cherished each and every one so much, and because there were so few of them. I still cherish comments, but these days I tend to only reply if a question is asked, and I want to change that. I mean, hey, you take the time to leave a note. The least I could do is acknowledge it with a friendly reply, right? Because my blog is a total side gig and I have a super busy day job, my comment replying will happen in the evenings and on weekends, but it will happen!
- Be someone’s guest. I’ve had some requests to guest blog in the past year and I’ve pretty much passed them all by. Back in 2010 I did some posts for Goodwill of Northern New England and some other blog pals, and that was fun. So this year I want to make myself at home in some virtual guest rooms, and you get to come along.
- Get around. Last year I met my blog pal Laura and that rocked. So, I’d like to meet a few more of my blog friends. And guess what! I have plans to do just that. I’m headed to BlogHer ’12 in NYC this August with blogger extraordinaire Heather (seen here and here) and I hope to meet many more of my “pen pals” there. We’ll definitely have some fun and hopefully learn a thing about this blogging industry while we’re at it.
And that is where my blogging head is at these days. Not too earth shattering, but definitely full of genuine enthusiasm. Here’s to another year of blogging in 2012!
December 31, 2011, marks our fourth wedding anniversary. It’s kind of a big deal. Not because it’s four years. But because it’s our four years.
Four years ago, I felt like the luckiest girl.
With the luckiest man awaiting my arrival.
I was this nervous.
And we were this happy.
We hugged a lot of family members and friends. We were so grateful that they were all there to celebrate with us.
We played in the snow.
We ate cake.
And we celebrated with friends and family until the new year came. Oh, and we wore silly hats, too.
If we could, we would do it all over again…
(All photos by Jonathan Robert, Quebec City.)
Happy New Year, everyone! May 2012 bring you happiness and joy.
At this time one year ago I was in labor. And on this night one year ago I delivered our sweet baby Ike. It has been the best, craziest, exhausting, heart-warming year, and we can hardly believe that our wrinkly little newborn is now a laughing, clapping and standing one-year-old who says “hi” whenever he wants our attention.
To commemorate the special day, I desired nothing more than an old fashioned cake smash photo shoot. Allow me to set the stage…
We had one sweet baby ready to get frosted…
And we had one cake ready to get smashed…
Baby, meet cake. Cake, meet baby.
After many attempts at getting him to touch the cake, eat the frosting, anything…he snags the candle.
And then he takes off…
I regained my cake composure and tried again later in the day in a normal dining setting…
“Really, Mom? You’re trying this again?”
I gave in and ate the slice that was on his tray.
“I’ll just have cheese, please, Mom.”
Next time I’ll make cheesecake.
Happy birthday, Ike!
Did you know that I have written 413 posts (including this one) since the inception of this blog just over two years ago? It’s true.
I love taking the time at the end of each year to go back month by month and browse my blogging history. Some posts I remember clear as day. Other posts, I can’t even tell by the title what I wrote. And then there are some surprises. Did I really make Irish Soda Bread on St. Patrick’s Day? (I did.) And did I really only post three times in the month of July? (Sadly, it’s the truth.)
So, here is a look back on some of my favorite posts from the past year:
#1 – The one where more than 100 people respond to a hormonal new mom’s request for readers to say hello (they were bribed by a cute photo of baby Ike). Have I mentioned that I love when you all leave comments?!
#2 – The one where I make a Martha-esque Blueberry Lemon Bundt Cake.
#3 – The one where I declare war against paper clutter. It makes my list of top posts because my method actually worked! I’ll share an update in a future post.
#4 – The one where I take my boring hallway to a new level by adding faux paneling and new, styled shelves (while on maternity leave!).
#5 – The ones where I DIY my son’s first Easter basket and Christmas stocking. I like holiday-themed, goody-collecting vessels. What can I say?
#6 – The one where I finally tell Ike’s birth story. I still remember it like it was yesterday exactly one year ago.
#7 – The one where I get all patriotic and make a berry trifle. Yum.
#8 – The ones where I go on a summer sewing frenzy to finish Ike’s quilt, make a quilt for Beth’s sweet new baby boy, and whip up some crayon cases.
#9 – The one where I dress up our Thanksgiving table in navy and tangerine.
#10 – And finally, the one where I show off our perfectly imperfect Christmas tree.
It was a good year. And I so appreciate that you took the time to follow along. Here’s to a year of posts in 2012!
In our house, the real fun behind this year’s Christmas card was the photo shoot. It is no lie that in order to get this card…
…I had to shoot a considerable number of photos. In fact, each of the outtakes below represent 10 that remain on my camera.
In case you are bad at math, that is a total of 50 outtakes. And actually, there were 53 to be exact.
Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
Psst…I’m getting into the holiday spirit by writing 12 holiday themed posts leading up to Christmas. In case you missed it, here are the other posts: Day 1: Felt Ornaments; Day 2: Holiday Door Swag; Day 3: Coconut Snowball Cookies; Day 4: Our Christmas Tree; Day 5: Our entryway; Day 6: Christmas traditions; Day 7: Walnut Brown Sugar Rugelach; Day 8: Decking the hall; Day 9: Ike’s stocking…
After pinning a bunch of ideas for Christmas stockings and then searching local stores and online shops for fabric that was just the right amount of Christmas, I ended up making Ike’s stocking with scraps of fabric that I had on hand.
Three cheers for procrastination forcing me to be resourceful!
You might recognize the polka dot fabric from Ike’s book slings, and the other green fabric from this Christmas tree hanging that I made last year. And the satin ribbon trim and loop is left over from some gift packaging.
I like how the red and green say Christmas without screaming it. I can only love Santa and snowman prints so much, you know?
The lining peeking through is actually some fabric that I used on the back of a baby quilt a while back. And even though it is yellow, it fits right in with the neutral tone of the other fabrics. Mix and match is okay by me!
And here is Ike’s stocking alongside another stocking that I made with the same old McCalls pattern a few years ago. I’m debating adding names to the stockings, but they will stay as they are for this year at least.
And I also need to make homemade versions for Chris and Frankie, but they may just need to use the store bought stockings we have for this year!
Maybe next year I can get motivated to do a tutorial on this stocking, as I’ve revised a pattern I have to make it super simple and quick. Remind me to start that next July!
Psst…I’m getting into the holiday spirit by writing 12 holiday themed posts leading up to Christmas. In case you missed it, here are the other posts: Day 1: Felt Ornaments; Day 2: Holiday Door Swag; Day 3: Coconut Snowball Cookies; Day 4: Our Christmas Tree; Day 5: Our entryway; Day 6: Christmas traditions; Day 7: Walnut Brown Sugar Rugelach; Day 8: Decking the hall…
