I found it...

I've been looking for a winter hat for some time now, with no luck. BUT today I found it... the perfect hat!

So, what do you think?! Is it too young? Phoebe thinks that now I'm "Dectective Mommy"... lmao!

Cranberry time!

In New England cranberries are a big thing. There are bogs everywhere and there was even a Cranberry Festival a few weeks ago, only about 20 minutes away from our house. Actually, come to think of it, my grandfather has a cousin who owns a dairy farm, with a corn field and a cranberry bog... lol!! Like I said, it's a big thing!

Well, I am a cookbook addict and while at the festival I found a cute little 30pg cookbook, Crazed for Cranberries - Low Fat Recipes, and I had to have it so I could try the Cranberry Square Crisp. Then it just so happened that a vendor at the Fairhaven Marketplace this Sunday was selling fresh cranberries! Sweet, for a total of $5 I got the book and the berries and was ready to cook!!

Monday I whipped up a batch and OMG I thought it was really really good. My mom wasn't at all thrilled and Chef Hubby said that it would have been amazing with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Well, of course, what doesn't?!

So Here it is:

Cranberry Square Crisp - serves 9

• 2 cups chopped fresh or dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 1/2 cups sugar1 egg white
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 4 Tbsp melted butter
• 1 cup unbleached flour
• pinch of salt1 tsp vanilla or almond extract (I used vanilla)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9" square baking pan with nonstick oil. Mix cranberries, walnuts, and 1/2 cup sugar. Spread in baking pan. Mix together remaining cup of sugar and all other ingredients. Stir until smooth. Pour over cranberries. Bake 40 minutes or until top crust becomes light golden brown. Cool 30 minutes. Cut into 3" squares.

It was soo good! I hope you like it, if you try it!

Muffin Tin - Halloween Theme!

I know it's been a while since I've last posted a muffin tin, but we still love and use them ALL of the time!! My grandparents watch the kids a couple of afternoons a week and Nana uses a muffin tin for snack just about every time... lol!!

Anyway, as I mentioned Sycamore Stirrings was having a Halloween Challenge this week. So here is ours:

Chocolate Graham and Cheddar Goldfish, multicolor ghost marshmallows, PB&J sandwich shaped like a pumpkin American Cheese shaped like bats, Pumpkin and bat pretzels, cheddar cheese rice cakes

Isn't it spooky... hehe! I had fun finding some of the items. I also bought some little pumpkin muffins, but Payton had already eaten when I got home to make to this for the kids. She had some of the snacks, but nothing major. The kids actually really enjoyed the muffins for breakfast this morning!

Buy 'em a box

Have you ever been told that you'd be better off buying your kid an empty box instead of the actual toy, as a gift?! Well, my kids take that to the extreme!

They each have their own bedroom, they also have toys on the bottom shelf of our Bar rack in the living room AND toys to play with in the basement, but what do they decide to do...

Yes, they are actually playing IN the toybox in Payton's room... that lasted for almost 40 minutes too! Do you believe that?!

Creating a space for mommy!!

So we have a sun room off our house. It was once a regular outdoor porch, but at some point was enclosed, panelled and carpeted. It's approximately 20 feet by 8 1/2 feet, so definitely not a bad size. The only unfortunate part of it is that it isn't insulated, but hey with a small portable heater, that's not an issue. So mommy is going to take it over!!

We've lived here together for about 8 yrs now (Chef Hubby grew up in this house) and that room has had several transformations. Shortly after moving in, I turned it into my sitting room. I had a wooden framed futon, an awesome pompeson chair, my mom made curtains and matching cover, it was awesome!! Then my brother in law needed a place to stay, so lived in that room for 17 months! After he moved out, it became our dumping grounds. It had everything in it. For a while you could barely walk to the back of the room, there was that much stuff.

Then I started to sort some of it out and it looked pretty decent... but not something calming or welcoming, or even the least bit organized!!

This is what you see when you walk in and look at my "workspace". No wonder I've lost a few of my swap items, thinking that I had already sent them!!

And this is the "lovely" site I view when I'm actually working. Doesn't it make you just want to finish that project and get out!?! I wanted something more.

So, now I am working on setting it up so that it's welcoming and cozy. I have plans for 2 work "stations" so that I don't have to craft alone. I also was able to talk Chef Hubby into letting me go to Ikea and search for the perfect bookcase... I love that place!! It's about 40 minutes away though, so I don't get there very often.

Anyway, stay tuned for the finished product... well, that may be a while, but stay tuned for the updates...lol!!

AND this week Sycamore Stirrings has a Halloween Themed Muffin Tin Challenge. I grabbed some items last night with my mom at Target, so we are ready! I will posting those pics tomorrow.

The Renaissance Faire!

Ok, so I never ever have pics of myself, but today is an exception... Today is the renaissance faire and I think I look pretty cute! This is actually my best friends Maid of Honor dress from my wedding. We had a medieval wedding and trust me, it looked amazing! My grandmother and my mom made all of the dresses, including my wedding dress. I am actually going to be calling the photographer soon to find out if he has the pics on disc that we can buy, or I'm going to have to scan some to show off!!

This is me and Phoebe in our backyard before heading to the faire. Payton was supposed to be in the pic which is why I'm yelling... hehe!

Chef Hubby (AKA... King Henry) does role playing and this is one of his outfits. Don't we look like the royal family?! OK, except for the chainlink fence behind us.

The faire is an amazing place! This is what you see as soon as you start walking in. How can you not want to run in and play?! All of those windows on the bottom are actually where you pay, then you enter through the gate. It's really an amazing scene.

And this is the end of the day. The kids were screaming, my feet were starting to get tired, but hubby thought I still looked pretty cute... lmao. Hope you enjoyed our little adventure!

Not so bad brownies... hmmm

So Chef Hubby heard of brownies made with Black beans instead of the oil and egg and wanted to try it. I was a more than a little hesistant because of Elizabeth's experience, but then found out that she had used a different type of bean. Anyway, he made them... I tried them... and man oh man, you can't even tell!!

I even had my mom try them, but didn't tell her they were made with the beans until after she fell in love with them. She couldn't believe it!! OK so the general jist of this post is... Try the black bean brownies!! They rock! lol.

Another week, another trip to the doctor's office...

So Last month Phoebe had strep throat, then a few weeks ago, she had another infection. We still aren't sure exactly what it was, but there was some trace blood in her urine. This was supposedly indicative of a possible kidney infection, but my kids never show any signs of being sick other than the runny nose or vomitting. The doctor said she should have been in a lot of pain, etc. Oh well, she gets to pee in a cup Saturday and we'll know more - great! right?

So now both kids have colds. No biggy, right? Wrong, apparently! Payton has a really bad cough at night and then it goes away during the day. I figured it was post nasal drip and the fact that it gets worse when you are sleeping, but decided to get it checked out anyway. Yeah, well my happy little kid with what I thought was a common cold, has 2 ear infections that are "at least a few days old" and croup! So now I get to monitor Phoebe to see if she has a progression of symptoms. So far, so good.

I don't know about anyone else, but neither of my kids are willing to "take" medicine. It's a throw down and it's tiring. It's only two doses in and I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to have enough of the meds left to finish the entire series. She's taking a steriod and an antibiotic 2 times a day... can someone shoot me now?!?!

Too much Couch

So have I ever mentioned that every time I buy new furniture, it's too big? Here's one example:
Yes, it is the only piece of furniture in the room! Nothing else fits!! They had to take completely apart in order to get it into the house. I felt so bad for them. The only good thing is that if it were 1" bigger in any direction, it would not have fit in the room... lol. Lucky me!!


So now is the other dilemma... the walls were a raspberry color venetian plaster. It looked awesome because we had an olive green couch with golden accents. The rug had all of the colors and it didn't seem that dungeon like. Now it feels like a cave!!

I had bought this putty color a while ago and painted the one wall to see if I liked it. I do, but haven't finished painting. I think I need to do it now. And before, near the window on the left was a media cabinet, so the picture on the wall looked far bigger. Now it's just floating there in limbo... ugh!! Well, at least there's plenty of room to stretch out...

This was our lazy morning! I cancelled my appointment at the gym, didn't go walking, and haven't gotten dressed yet, but I got some stuff done that I've been struggling to do...

Put away some clothes that have been folded and sitting in the baskets for days

Cleaned the kitchen

Washed and cleared the front of my refrigerator - small but important!!

Vacuumed the whole house

Finally put the AC in the attic

Worked on some swaps that have been breathing down my neck and couldn't get to them!

Anyway, I still have 2 more hours before I leave for work so now I have to feed and dress the kids and me, wipe down the bathroom, and finish cleaning off the top of the bar... it's our catch all place, that I dread!

Hope your day is going well!