Our 2013 Photobook!

It's done!

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Arya's Birthday week

Arya turned two on Tuesday, January 14, and we had a very low key steak dinner with Grandpa and Grandpa Heller.  She opened a gift from Mike and Tricia and got a Berenstain Bears coloring book from Grandpa and Grandma. Thank you!! Since we had guests in town, Neil was able to take a day off from work.  She spent a lot of time at the beach in La Jolla, took a very long 4 hour nap, went to a German restaurant and had spaetzle on the 14th and the 15th.

Weekends 3/52

::weekends is a new series where I'll be documenting some of what we do on our weekends.  For us, that's Thursdays and Fridays::

This weekend was around Arya's 2nd birthday and we had Grandpa and Grandma Heller here to enjoy the great weather!  It's been an unusually warm winter and it hit 80 degrees in Coronado on Thursday, 1/16 (Happy Birthday Bridget!).  I'm not usually a beach kind of girl (as you can tell by me wearing jeans and a sweater to the beach), but I actually enjoyed myself and Arya had a good time too.  She played in the water, played with her sand toys and ran and ran and ran.  I've had this swimsuit for about 3 years now.  She's finally old enough to wear it!

Tea Time with Arya

Weekends 2/52

::weekends is a new series where I'll be documenting some of what we do on our weekends.  For us, that's Thursdays and Fridays::

Arya became the newest member of the New Children's Art Museum!  We had a free pass from the library that we checked out and it also allowed us to get 25% off an annual membership.  We decided to go and see how much she liked it before we shelled out the money, but she ended up having a good time and I really liked it. I see many more days at the museum with her!

Minimalist Mama Makeup

I've been looking for a simple routine that will make it look like I'm awake and have some color on my face.  After several Youtube videos and testing out different products, I think I've finally found something that works for me.  It's super fast and it makes me look like I tried to look put together. It provides a good enough day look, but it's also a good base to add a few steps if I have time. I've noticed I don't always do all the steps, so here are basics and the add-ons if I have time. I should also mention that I put eye cream on and moisturized my face beforehand.

The basics
for undereye (to get rid of my dark circles!)
Benefit Cosmetics Erase Paste in 1 Fair, use with finger --love this!
BareMinerals Broad Spectrum SPF 20 Concealer in Bisque / brush --used to use this on it's own, but now I need more coverage.

for eyes:
Mac Pro Longwear Paint Pot in Painterly, use with finger -- love this!
Jordana Eyeliner
eye curler

for cheeks and lips:
NARS blush in Madly / brush
tinted lipgloss

Add-ons:
for eyes: Dark brown shadow in my eye crease / brush
mascara-rarely, but I do use it sometimes

for face: bronzer on my forehead and under my cheek bones to contour.

Special occasions:
I do have a few foundations that I will pull out every once in a while.  I would say I would use one of these maybe once a month, if that.
one is full coverage
one is a BB cream
one is a mineral powder

Naked Palette-If I ever want to play around the eye color, I have this palette to use.  I use a different dark brown shadow for my add-on.

The Holy Grail of Frosting

I have found it!  The illusive frosting that I've never been able to find!  Not to sweet, not too sticky, but still has that marshmallowy, cloud-like texture!  If the cake is kept in the fridge, then it's more like buttercream. And what's even better is that it called for ingredients I always have on hand.  No need to go buy a pound of powdered sugar like all the other recipes called for.

Here's what you need:

•  Tablespoons Flour
• 1 cup Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 cup Butter
• 1 cup Granulated Sugar (not Powdered Sugar!)

For the recipe, follow the link!

I think it would be decadent on chocolate cake, but it was just as yummy on yellow cake.

Notes:  I started beating the butter/sugar mixture before starting the milk/flour mixture to allow more time.  I was never able to get all the sugar to dissolve, but that turned out to be O.K.  Next time, I'll try and get all the sugar to dissolve. Also, be sure the whisk the milk/flour mixture constantly.  I heated it up on medium and it thickened up really fast.  It took about 20 minutes for the mixture to get to room temperature.  I also tinted the milk/flour mixture to change the color, instead of the final product.

Super Yummy!!!

Weekends 1/52

::weekends is a new series where I'll be documenting some of what we do on our weekends.  For us, that's Thursdays and Fridays::

We feel SO SO blessed to have some days off together after 5+ years.  It definitely took some getting used to, but I think we've got a tentative rhythm that allows me to have my absolutely required alone time and Neil's absolutely required "get out of the house!" time.

Arya had a good time at Presidio Park.  We kicked the ball around, played with the leaves and played keep away with Arya with the frisbee. Another little boy wanted in on the fun too, so that was cute.

New Year's Day Cooking Marathon

After a successful Champagne Chicken recipe last night (2012's was a bust!), it put me in the mood to try a few more recipes I've been looking at and to do some bakeware testing.  The morning started with Quiche Lorraine.  The nearby grocery store has a really good one for about $10, and it's always a surprise, because it doesn't label what kind of extra ingredients are going to be in it.  Sometimes it's just plain, sometimes it had spinach and if you're lucky sometimes it has BACON in it!  :)

I found a recipe on Pinterest that looked pretty tasty.  I thought we could maybe have it for breakfast today (I started it about 7am), but I had to cook the onions for about 1 hour and then it says it has to sit in the fridge for a day.  So it looks like we'll be eating it tomorrow.  We did have enough batter to make a crustless quiche in one of my mini pie pans and after eating all of that, we can attest it was very good!  A word of caution: Make sure the pie pan is as level as you can get it when it's in the oven.  We noticed ours was off and there was some batter leaking, but we figured it would stop once it got to a certain level.  NOPE! I looked back about 10 minutes later and about half the batter was on the cookie sheet!  I carefully scooped back into the pie crust and adjusted it so it was more level.

At about 10am, I started making some banana bread. (no picture). Arya goes through bananas like nobody's business, but every once in a while, one gets to the overripe stage and I stash it in the freezer.  I had three frozen bananas and 3 ripe/overripe fresh bananas.  I got a Le Crueset loaf pan for Christmas and we still have one supposedly nonstick pan, so we'll see which one fares better.  As I'm writing this and as the bread is in the oven, I just realized I never dusted the pans after putting the spray on it….hmm, getting the bread out might just be a little interesting now.  Note: we used plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream.  Update of bakeware test: both did not stick!  I should have left the Le Crueset pan in there longer as it was a little doughy.  The recipe called for 1 hour, I did closer to 1.5 hours and I'd say next time to have the Le Crueset in there at least 1.75 hours.

Next on my list is red pepper hummus.  I made a really good one a month or so ago and I have to see if I can find my notes, because it was really good and I made modification, I think. (Found them, they are in the comments of my Pin)  I've been eating a store bought one that is blended with greek yogurt, so I may try that.  My only issue with making hummus is I only have a mini food processor. Maybe a bigger food processor is in my future….(30th Birthday is coming up).. Or perhaps I could just use the blender this time and see if that works. Update: our old blender didn't make it too easy to make hummus.