because i'm kind of a mess

if you know me, you know i love a good apron.
i mean really love a good apron.
mostly because i'm kind of a mess.
i'm not talking about emotionally either, because while that's probably true, that's a post for another day.
i mean i am a mess, in the kitchen especially.
i haven't learned the art of neat and tidy cooking.
but homemade goodness from the kitchen is usually worth it, so it's ok.
but not if it adds to my laundry pile.
and not if it requires me to change my clothes after every meal.
and not if i have to reach for the towel to dry my hands every ten seconds.
and so, i love a good apron.
and lucky for me, patsy has been sewing up a storm lately.

this photo doesn't even do it justice - it's so dang cute!
and i love the style, sort of old fashioned that doesn't tie around your neck.
and this morning, when i was making the kids' lunches,
i should've been wearing it.
because i wasn't.
and now my pajamas smell like tuna.
thanks patsy, i love you.

six for sunday

everything in my life feels so random right now, that a six for sunday misceallany post seems appropriate...

one. while april was organizing my pantry the other day (her specialty), i checked the mail and found this flyer...

since someone was at my house helping me clean, we both found it pretty comical. even better, was that it took about ten shots for april to re-create the face of the horrified woman on the flyer.

two. with all of the projects and spring cleaning going on at my house this week, i decided to finally take down the christmas cards/photos from the front door.

i usually leave them up until at least easter because all those smiling faces make me so happy.

after it was done, the space seemed so naked. 

what can i do to my front door to make it a happier space?

three. i figured out how to throw out ethan's pre-school projects guilt free! we hang it up on the fridge for a while, ooo and ahhhh over it to several people, take a photo of him with it, and then toss it! (sneakily of course, not infront of him) it's so freeing!

of course, i have saved a handful of things, but seriously, i wish i would've done this way back when taylor started bringing home the art work twelve or so years ago. he's only fifteen now, is it too late to have him pose with a few of his kindergarten projects?

four. my family came over for dinner tonight and for no real good reason other than taste bud delight, i whipped up these chocolate forest cherry cupcakes. yum.

i piped a little "nest" of frosting to house the tablespoon of cherry pie filling that went on top. it was the best part, next time i'm going to use a little more than i did tonight. i'm definitely going to make them again, they were as yummy as they were pretty. even rich liked them, and that's saying a lot.  i know i've said it before, but the wendy paul cupcake book, is so great!

five. this weekend i spent a chunk of time immaculately cleaning my office. it's so satisfying to get everything organized and dust-free, but so disheartening to know that it's such a high-traffic area that it will only stay this way for less than a day. 

so here's proof that it does get cleaned occasionally.

six. last week, i woke up way too early, somewhere in the five o'clock hour to take spencer to early morning wrestling practice. i found a certain teenager in her bathroom curling each and every inch of her very long, very straight hair with the triple barrel she got for her birthday.

apparently, this process takes hours and required her to get up long before the sun to get it done in time to catch the bus. and while very cute, especially with the flower, it just reinforced to me, the fact that i am so not a girlie girl.
i much prefer sleep over vanity.

six for sunday

nothing super big going on around here, so for now, all i can post are my random bits of life...

one. i'm so happy that chuck and american idol are back!

happy that captain awesome has played a bigger role this season so i have more time to look at him.

i almost forgot how yummy he is.

we already have a few favorites on idol, but i'm glad it's hollywood week coming up, i'm so done with the auditions.

two AND three. we should've bought ethan an ipod for christmas too. he's constantly pestering the teenagers to borrow theirs so he can play the games.

AND, i found these woody costume pjs online for so cheap i couldn't pass them up, i knew they would be a hit. he's been wearing them around the house with his cowboy boots non stop.

what's funnier than a toddler dressed as woody playing his sister's pink ipod on the couch?

four.  i bought a dyson! after years and years of needing a new vacuum every eight months or so (seriously), i finally talked rich into picking one of these sweet babies up.

i was so excited about the new purchase, that yesterday i vacuumed every inch of the house including dusty mouldings, blinds, window seals, cobwebs, and ceiling fans. i had to empty the canister SIX times. gross, but also glorious.

five. three words: good. mail. goodness. the first delivery, were these red farberware pots and pans that i've been coveting over forever. they're so gorgeous!

thank you april who found the killer deal and my mom who agreed to go in on them with her! second, my cute friend nicki spoiled me rotten with a fun box full of music, treats, home decor and delightful personal touches. i loved that she stuck this fortune to the outside of the box.

i'm so lucky to have such cute ladies in my life!

six. one of the best ideas i've ever had. last week at sunday dinner, i told the teenagers that they were going to be in charge of choosing a dinner that week, and that they would responsible for helping to prepare it. i'm realizing that although the kids have some cooking experience, taylor's leaving for college in 2.5 years (what the heck?!) and i probably ought to step it up in the kitchen department. taylor can't afford to lose any calories from his diet.

so this week, we had shepherd's pie, chicken & veggie stir fry and homemade pizza all prepared by teenagers. the best part is thoroughly enjoying my time with them in the kitchen.

the end.

five for friday

random bits of life this week...

one. the strawberry shortcake cupcakes i made for spencer's birthday turned out so awesome!

last year for my birthday, my SIL lisa gave me the wendy paul 101 gourmet cupcakes cook book  so far, we've made about ten different recipes from this book and they've all been awesome - and super easy. these had a spoonful of strawberry stuff baked in the middle that made them very moist and super yummy.

my only complaint about them was that the whip cream topping started to slide after about one minute which made it hard to deliver the extras to the neighbors. oh well, more for us eh?

two. rich is in the thick of the "death march" of toy story 3 at work, which means, in a nutshell, that he's pulling long ridiculous hours every day including saturdays. ethan sees him the least because he's usually in bed when rich comes home at night, and even sometimes when he leaves in the morning. 

so when we had him all to ourselves for the whole day on sunday, ethan had to take advantage of some snuggling on the couch. i love this, it makes my heart melt a little.

three. clear the roads! taylor got his learner's permit this week.

i'm starting to get motion sickness going around and around the church parking lot. we've got to get this kid out on the road soon. bleh.

four. after a lot of begging, allie finally got contact lenses on monday. it was time, and needless to say, she's over the moon about them.

however, she informed me last night that without her glasses, her face is too plain and boring and she's going to have to start wearing brighter make up to make it exciting again. what?

five. spencer has been counting down the days to the spring lacrosse season, so when we heard about an indoor winter league, he was IN. the indoor field is fun because the ball never goes out of bounds but makes taking photos with no reflection a bit of a challenge.

this week he also started conditioning with the wrestling team, which from what we've heard, is pretty intense, but he loves it. i'm grateful that he's staying busy with things that he loves, and all the extra exercise makes for a happier spencer which is nice.

ok, this post could've been "ten for friday" with the busy week that we've had, but this will have to do for now!

i heart ree

for years now, i have been following pioneer woman on her hillarious journey of "high heels to tractor wheels" on her very well done blog. this woman completely amazes me, i am always in awe of how much she can do, and that she does it all so well.

her photos are stunning and she knows exactly the right kind of tweaking with photoshop to make them that much better. she lives on a cattle ranch, she home-schools her beautiful children, she is in love with her handsome cowboy husband, oh AND she can cook. like nobody's business. but all of this goodness isn't what i love the most about her. it's her ability to tell a story and make me feel like i'm a part of her little life out there in the country, like we've been friends for as long as i've been reading. her stories usually send me laughing, sometimes crying, sometimes a little bit of both. she's just so REAL, such a down home cookin', kind of a woman, and i love her! i love ree drummond!

ok, so we've established that i'm a fan, maybe a little too much, but seriously, everyone i know who reads her feels the same way i do. so imagine how excited i was to hear that she was publishing a cook book! yay!

of course i pre-ordered it on amazon, several actually, and i couldn't wait to see it, i knew she would have written and photographed everything in it herself and it would be amazing. and it is by the way.

so imagine how over the top excited i was to find out that salt lake city was on her book tour!!!!

of course we planned a big girl's night out, got there way early because we knew there would be a million people there (even if the tiny little book store had NO IDEA - which they didn't). and it was worth all the waiting and standing in line, and evening buying another expensive copy from the tiny little book store because mine hadn't arrived in the mail from amazon yet. (guess what arrived the very  next day?) all of it, totally worth it, she was wonderful! 

it was great to hear her speak, the question and answer session was a lot of fun - i could tell right away that everyone else in the room loved her as much as me.(we are in the fourth row back on the leftish - you can see patsy waving).

she also brought her sister in law missy who i was thrilled to meet, she's beautiful!

after the Q&A, we waited in another long line that wound through the tiny but delightful bookstore - though not as long for us since we were there super early and got tickets to the signing - woohoo!

but that line was worth it too, because she signed my book for me and chatted for a minute, and chuckled when i told her that she "saved thanksgiving gravy at my house".

i really wanted her to know this. i explained about having my SIL hold the laptop for me by the stove top while i scrolled down to each photo with one hand, whisk in the other, following along to make sure i was doing it just right. then she had a good laugh,  she said, "oh the gravy is so important, i'm so glad i could help!"

i wish i could have come up with something memorable to tell her, like how amazing i think she is.  i just didn't know what to say without sounding like a psycho - kind of like i am now i'm sure. i heart ree.

SPT - wordless edition

"getting started"

reasons to love wednesday...

wednesday of this week was great for all kinds of reasons and i'll get to posting about them all eventually, but for now here's just a few. first of all i felt cute all day long in the darling skirt my fantastic SIL made me, i finally had allie take a photo for me...i seriously love it and think i'm going to be ordering like ten more from her!it is so comfy and dressy enough but casual enough and so cute, and let's face it, that's a magic combination - thanks jenny! wednesday was also great because around dinner time our kitchen smelled like calzones - mmmm. it hasn't smelled like calzones for a long time and oh man are they good. there's not really a recipe for them, but to see how we put them together you can check out our cooking blog. and to prepare our calzone dinner i finally wore my new flirty apron that i bought on our trip to orem for the blogger party!this one is called sunshine but we all know why i bought it, it's the daisies of course! check out their cute line here, i'm dying over the cupcake one too! i might need to start a collection of these things! one for every day of the week perhaps? so fun, my new favorite thing for sure. and wednesday was especially great because our cutie DAVID COOK won idol! woooo hoooo!i was so certain that david archuletta would win that i told my kids, seconds before the reveal, that if it was david cook i would take them all out for dairy queen even though everyone was already ready for bed! when ryan said "cook", our whole family jumped up and started screaming! we couldn't believe it. we watched his song and then headed to DQ in our pj's. it was so fun telling the lady at the drive thru window that we were there for celebratory blizzards in honor of cook's winning. she thought we were nuts but we were too excited to care.we are faithful idol watchers and do you know that this is the first season since carrie underwood that who we cheered for all season actually WON! what made season seven a fun season to watch was all the incredible talent from everyone...well everyone except kristy lee cook, yikes. we wish david archuletta well, i'm sure he doesn't even need our well-wishes, because we really do like him....we just LOVE david cook! great day!

cupcake redemption

so you may remember the cupcake fiasco of earlier this month, i myself am still trying to forget about it. i came a little closer to accomplishing this goal yesterday with a little help from a good mail package from kristy that i forgot to post about. she sent me these darling spring candies and cupcake papers and encouraged me and allie to try again! i have been craving lemon cake so i decided to make lemon cupcakes for easter dessert. i chickened out and made the cupcakes from a lemon cake mix because i am still leery of trying any new recipes at the moment (do you blame me?). but, i definitely wanted homemade frosting, but i couldn't find any kind of lemon butter cream, only lemon icing and that definitely would not do - i am definitely a butter cream kind of girl. so, i invented my OWN lemon butter cream recipe! yup, i did. and let me say, oh my heavenly goodness, they were fantastic! i will definitely be posting this frosting on the cooking blog for any other lemon lovers such as myself. and the decorating, with help from kristy's package, was like something store bought! thanks to all my decorators, who were lauren, emily, allie and makenna. ok, and i piped the frosting. lemony goodness. they tasted even better today when i wasn't so full from easter dinner. so kristy, thanks for the good mail package and for having faith in me to pull off some cute AND yummy cupcakes.

**have you ever made up your own recipe?

how do you feel about lemon desserts?**

bitten by the bakerella bug

it's all patsy's fault that i've been spending way too much on bakerella's blog this past week. it's so cute, if you haven't seen it, you must check it out! i am not a baker, not really, but i have been so inspired by how easy she makes it look that i've totally been bitten by the bakerella bug. so i was dying over the cupcake bites but decided i'd better try the original ball version first and see how it goes. so i gathered ingredients and recruited allie and kayla to help me. we began friday evening making the velvet cake. i have not been able to find a red velvet cake mix at any store so we ended up making one from scratch. i will post the recipe on the bloggermomscook blog incase anyone is interested. once the cake has been cooked and cooled, allie had the messy job of adding the cream cheese frosting to the crumbled cake crumbs. (i'll post the cream cheese frosting recipe on the cooking blog too). we decided next time it might be just as effective to use a potato masher. after we had all the batter rolled into balls, into the freezer they went for easier dipping later. by this point, it was late and kayla had to go home so today when allie and i were ready to dip the cake balls into the chocolate we called kayla back over for the fun part of the process. the girls had way too much fun, they made a huge mess! we decided to do half and half with the white chocolate and i even tried my hand at drizzling - yeah, it was hard than i thought i would be. so they are not super gorgeous because we were kind of globby with the chocolate, but it was really fun and one batch makes a ton. we fed several teenagers hanging out at our house tonight and past out several to our wonderful neighbors. they felt too fancy for just a plate so i wrapped them in cello with a bow. today i went to roberts and bought some fondant because next allie and i are dying to try the cute little roses atop cupcakes! so cute!

**do baking projects intimidate you?

have you ever drizzled chocolate before?

have you ever made red velvet cake?**