DIY in a Day

Does anyone else have spring fever?! I DO!!

With the itch to get outside and spruce up the yard comes some DIY opportunities around the house.

 Take this chair, for example. I got it for free (seriously) at a friend's garage sale 2 summers ago.

I liked it because it was simple, had character, and was the perfect size for our front porch entry.

 The distressed look worked for me until this year. I wanted an update and decided to do some clean color blocks with paint we already owned. Free and on trend. Could it get better?!

 First I spray painted the entire chair (but the seat) in black, then taped off the color blocks to paint. 

I chose not to touch the wicker seat, though it was fraying in some places, because I liked the texture and earthiness of it. 

 I went with the sunny yellow from our kitchen and the deep teal color of our front door to tie our entry together.

 End result!

Inviting little entry, isn't it?! 

Everyone welcome :)

socks

Okay, seriously?! Why does it bring me SO much joy to find random little socks everywhere? It is not as cute when I find one of Kellen's strays around the house..but there is something about Paige's that makes my heart happy.

Taste of Chicago Heaven

Last Friday night Kellen and I had one of our home-date nights where we enjoyed staying in and cooking together. We made authentic Chicago-style deep dish pizza, something we watched on America's Test Kitchen (shout out to my fellow non-cable owners). It took some patience but totally worth the labor and made for nice company. 

 Homemade dough...mmmm

 rise baby rise


Here was the secret to getting the buttery flaky crust:

 spread the butter in one layer...

 

Then roll

then fold and let rise a 2nd time. Genius!

{Next step is admire your audience who is losing her socks}

Homeade sauce also made the flavor rich. 

Roll out the dough a final time, then tranfer it to your pan by using your rolling pin to prevent breaking.

Another key: freshly grated mozzarella. The real stuff.

Fresh out of the oven

 Check out those buttery layers.

I don't want to know how many WW points was in this...looks like I have an extra pumping session in my future!

I am in no way bragging, but I would like to think that we have done a pretty good job at keeping our life/house in order since Paigey dropped in. Don't get me wrong, it has been a transition, but not as hard as we were anticipating as far as keeping up with chores, correspondences, exercise, errands, routines, dates, etc etc....

BUT there is one thing that we have slacked on and I see its reminder every time I gaze into our lovely little back yard...

See it? Bottom right corner...

No, that is not a gangly bush. Yes, friends, that would be our Christmas Tree.

Kel put it out there when were taking everything down and we totally spaced taking it to the tree recycling people we normally do in Broad Ripple. We called, and surprise surprise, they aren't accepting anymore.

 I know think that there is a squirrel living in it because I have seen a rather fat one scurrying in our yard recently and Captain can't seem to get his nose out of it when he is out.

I am re-playing the scene from Christmas Vacation in my head....

With my bad luck with spiders (see this post), I think a squirrel would add a whole new dimension.

We need to get this OUT asap!

On a more livelier note, I found some new recipes that I am psyched about. They are for a seasoned iron skillet (a dear family friend gave me her 40-year old one when we got married and at the time I kinda thought it was odd, but now I treasure it). You prep/braise on the stove, then just slide the entire thing into the oven to finish cooked. De-lish, easy one pot meal that doesn't even need soap to clean up.

 

Of course this one we had the other night is from the Today Show, but there are more out there.

Half Birthday!

"Who are you and what have you done with our Baby Paige?"

This is what we started asking ourselves one week before Paige turned 6 months. Literally, overnight, she went from being a little gooey baby to this person who is aware of her surroundings and nosy about it, has a sense of humor, knows what she wants, and gets her feelings hurt. We are in trouble when she becomes a teenager.

Here are some of MY favorite things right now:

6 month stats:

14 lbs 3.5oz (20th percentile)

27 1/4 in (95th percentile)

Still looong and skinny!

Yep....feelings hurt

I dont know how someone can get such sticky toes overnight....

so every morning we take a quick skinny dip

 

 No teeth yet but drooling like a farm animal (a cute one of course)

W started some solid foods! I wanted to wait to go serious with it at 6 months but started a few practice rounds a few weeks before. I have a heard a lot of talk back and forth about starting with rice cereal or skipping the starches and going straight to veggies. After much thought (and more motherhood guilt) I chose to do rice shortly...I kind of felt like it was a right of passage or something. I found some organic whole grain cereal that I could feel better about.

I am also choosing to make all of our baby food and am super excited about it. It turns my love to cook into a new hobby.

First bites of butternut squash = success

Who doesn't end up with a little food on their peach fuzz head after eating?

Bedtime stories

New discoveries