nautical baby shower

I did a nautical themed shower for a dear friend of mine. She has two beautiful girls that were the 7 and 3 when she surprisingly found out she was having another. She and her husband were both excited when they found out they were having a boy. Shannon and I were sorority sisters and right after our senior year of college Shannon and Matt got married and then moved to Oregon. A few years ago Matt's jog brought them back to Gig Harbor. I was so excited to get to spend more time with my friend and it was just in time for my wedding. I was also delighted to be able to throw a baby shower for her. 

We had the nautical themed shower at a Thai Food restaurant that had a nice back room area. It was small but we were a small group and it worked out perfectly. I borrowed some nautical items from two male teachers that have sailboats and love to sail....the boats, life ring, lanterns and some small figurines. They really helped with the decor. 

Each guest found their name in a jar of sand at their seat and a paper to write their wishes for Hudson. Each wish sheet was rolled it up and a ribbon was put around it like "a message in a bottle" (below) for Shannon to read to Hudson one day. 

The brick wall made for such a cool background. 

I found a wonderful alphabet sailboat book that each guest signed for Hudson. 

Salt water taffy for a favor...."Thank you for sailing the S.S. Hudson"

My mom has an embroidery business so I took advantage of that and had her embroider Hudson's name on the flags that we hung above the life ring. 

This picture was taken at Hudson's first birthday and going away party....missing my friend who is now living on the east coast....hopefully they come home soon. 

wine dinner

Since there hasn't been a whole lot going on with the house lately I thought I would write about some of the parties I've done. :)

Not too long ago I had a wine and cheese party. It was at the end of my spring break and I think I spent the whole week planning and prepping for this fun little get together....my most favorite thing to do ever. Richie does not love this so much. I start to pull my tray and dishes and design pieces out days before to play with the setup etc. It totally takes over our house and me while I obsess over it...because it has to be perfect of course. Richie also knows that these parties cost money. :) So he makes sure to remind me not to go too crazy....but I always do and hey he benefits anyways so it all works out.  I knew that I had wanted to have bottles of wine disguised and have the guests guess the wines so I made little cards and disguised the wines and had gifts to give out for the winners. I also wanted to have a lot of yummy food. So I planned and cooked for the party. 

The food table.

I made Gorgonzola-Parmesan twists, manchego cheese-and-onion jam toasts (these look pretty scary on the plate but they are mouth watering delicious), and cheese stuffed dates with prosciutto. 

I also made these cranberry cheese ball pops. So cute and easy and most importantly delicious. 

I had a variety of cheeses and crackers and bread sticks to go with them. 

I found these printable signs here...this is where I also got my inspiration. Aren't these signs the cutest?!

I also had bruschetta on the table, goat cheese to go with rosemary raisin pecan crisps and bacon fig jam, and caprese skewers. The food was devoured....we had some leftovers but not many. A sign of a good party. I wanted to make the jam homemade but figs weren't in season so I bought fig jam from the store....I then boiled together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup homey, 2 T bourbon, 1 T balsamic vinegar, 1 T orange concentrate, some salt and 1/3 lb of cooked bacon and added the jam. It was perfect. 

I made sangria, had extra bottles of wine and water. This sangria was the best recipe I have made so far and I have made many recipes....I will use this one again and again. 

Ah and my group of party girls and their kiddos (I'm sure all of the men were surrounding the table...that's where they spent most of the night...eating). :) We had such a great time. And realized that guessing the wines was harder than we thought

foundation complete

Our foundation is finally complete. Yay!  And as Richie put it "ready for sticks". 

The other night Richie and I went out in the dark basically (it gets dark so early now) and put hay all around the lot to soak up all of the rain we will get. We were also so excited to see that the basement is ground level and will really walk out onto what will be some part of a lawn/patio so now our minds are thinking as we can change the design of the decks somewhat...we will probably wait until the last thing to figure that out but that is a big plus. A not so big plus that we also realized is that the guide wire for the oh so lovely power pole is right in the way of our front entry...we were worried about this...ugh!  Sooo the next thing on the list is to get this figured out and fix it....hoping there is a way we can get the wire moved to the other side without spending a fortune. 

I also met with Canyon Creek cabinetry and am waiting to get that bid back....I love all of the drawings and of course we went all out with our ideas/wish list...so I'm sure we will be way over budget but it's a starting point and I am trying not to get my hopes up. But anyways... I'm loving this next step of working on the design of things. 

Photo wall

Tonight I added to the collage wall. I decided to put the photos that I was going to put up on the staircase wall on the collage wall downstairs. I was just feeling a little weird about all the wedding photos and thought they would be better downstairs instead of right when you walk in the door. And....I think they made the wall  look complete...I kept feeling like it was missing something. Richie refers to it as my wedding shrine....better to have it all in one place. :)

I like it better than before. I could probably still change it a million more times...maybe too much white on top and black on the bottom...but hey it's up and that's it...for now anyway. :) Yay! 

photo collage wall

This was another big ticket item on my summer to do list. I had purchased the frames quite a while ago and have played around with the layout for months. Finally I ordered photos. I had contacted my wedding photographer to see if she had any suggestions for ordering professional quality photos, and she told me about mpix I was very happy with these photos, and the price was very reasonable. After I got the photos I moved around a few frames, then I needed my wonderful hubby to hang the frames....not a fun or easy job. :) We started with the large wall....I had started school so I brought my school work to the basement, he brought his wireless stereo to keep himself in a happy mood and we worked through it. I decided to add the letters from our wedding...I just love them.

I started with everything on the floor and from the floor we moved it up to the wall. 

My school work and Richie making sure everything is aligned evenly. 

I added these to the wall next to it. With our professional photo album and guest book. 

I like it...I think...for my first collage wall anyway. :) I think it is higher than it should be... maybe if everything was a foot lower it would be prefect. I knew I couldn't ask for this change at that time so we will let a little time pass and then see how Richie feels about moving everything down. :) Or maybe I just forget about it and keep this in mind when I put up a photo collage in our new house. 

Next these are going to go on the wall up the stairs. :) I hope friends that come over don't mind seeing lots of wedding photos of us. :) Maybe some day we will have a dog or kids we can put up pictures of but for now it's just us. 

Fall Cooking

I love lazy football fall Sundays. This morning I made pumpkin waffles that were delicious. We had them with homemade maple syrup and peanut butter. YUM! I found the recipe on Pinterest of course. 

Pumpkin Waffles

Ingredients

• 2 C flour
• 2 Tbsp baking powder
• 2 Tbsp. cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 egg yolks (save egg whites)
• 1 C pumpkin
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 C milk
• 3/4 C melted butter

Instructions

• Mix dry ingredients together
• Then add egg yolks, pumpkin, vanilla, milk, butter
• Beat 4 egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold them into batter
• Cook in waffle iron (I used a deep Belgian waffle iron)
• Serve with buttermilk or cinnamon syrup

Copyright © YourHomeBasedMom

For dinner I'm going to make a lasagna soup. I also found this recipe on Pinterest. I've made it before and it was a big hit! I found these fun noodles to use because Fred Meyer didn't have mafalda or fusilli...I think they are going to work so much better...the cutest looking mini curly lasagna noodles. :)

This soup has the most delicious flavors and the yummiest ricotta cheese surprise on top. 

Lasagna Soup

for the Soup:

2 tsp. olive oil

1-1/2 lbs. Italian Sausage

3 c. chopped onions

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp. dried oregano

1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

2 T. tomato paste

1 28 oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes

2 bay leaves

6 c. chicken stock

8 oz. mafalda or fusilli pasta

1/2 c. finely chopped fresh basil pasta

1/2 c. finely chopped fresh basil leaves

salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

for the cheesy yum:

8 oz ricotta

1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp. salt

pinch of freshly ground pepper

additional cheesy yum:

2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add sausage, breaking up into bite sized pieces, and brown for about 5 minutes. Add onions and cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Cook for 1 minute. Add tomato paste and stir well to incorporate. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the tomato paste turns a rusty brown color. 

Add diced tomatoes, bay leaves, and chicken stock. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add uncooked pasta and cook until al dente. Do not over book or let soup simmer for a long period of time at this point, as the pasta will get mushy and absorb all the soup broth. You may even want to consider cooking the noodles separately, and then adding some to individual bowls before ladling the soup over them. This would be an especially smart move if you are anticipating any leftovers. Right before serving, stir in the basil and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the cheesy yum. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta, Parmesan, salt and pepper. 

To serve, place a dollop of the cheesy yum in each soup bowl, sprinkle some of the mozzarella on the top and ladle the hot soup over the cheese. 

Source

Source: Adapted from 300 Sensational Soups by Carla Snyder and Meredith Deeds, as seen in the February-April 2011 edition of At Home with Kowalski's magazine from Kowalski’s Markets.

Time to get organized!

I love being home on a Saturday with nothing to do...because I can actually do so many things. :) 

I worked from one project to the next...it was a very productive day.  All of my organizing materials had been set out on the living room floor staring at me for a while now so I decided to dive into the project.

I went to Staples...one of my favorite places to shop. I just love office supplies...it's definitely the teacher in me. I bought a binder, (Martha Stewart of course) some pocket sleeves, a file basket, and an accordion file.

I have been accumulating many magazines and needed to sort through those ideas so I tore out my favorite pages and organized them into similar areas....for example kitchen, bathrooms etc.  I decided to put these clippings into the accordion file. I'm not convinced that I will love this yet but I'm going to give it a try. I think I might like to have these in a binder in clear sleeves but I'll see and can always change it later. That's what being organized is all about....trying it and finding out what works for you. 

In this oh so pretty turquoise binder I'm going to put all of my drawings of room layouts, cabinets, built-ins, notes, etc. I don't have too many of these drawings yet but I know I will. I'm putting all of these papers in these really neat 3 pocket page inserts I found. There is one full page pocket with two other pockets on the front....lots of room for many pages. These pockets also have a cut alongside the hole for easy snap in snap out access so you don't have to open the binder rings every time. 

Here is the file box....we will be keeping all of the not so fun paper work in these files like the budget and permits....the husband's stuff. :) We don't have too many things to go into these files yet either but we will add files as we need them.

And here it all is...in one neat and nice place. 

Behind the files I have the binder, accordion file, and all of my magazines. Now I'm ready to get going on all those other big and fun decisions we have to make like marble, and fixtures, and doors. :)