Monday, December 31, 2012

Reese's BIG ONE Wishlist


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Oh hey guys, I hope you had a great weekend!
With Reese's birthday around the corner I thought I would make a list to help make shopping a bit easier on everyone attending his party.
He has a ridiculous amount of clothing... you can thank me and my need to always buy him EVERYTHING imaginable in midget size :)
(My name is Nicole and I have a clothing addiction)

Please do not feel obligated to purchase any of these items, these are merely a suggestion so you can see what his and our taste is when it comes to toys and clothing.

xoxo

Friday, December 28, 2012

Healthy Eats


I finally picked up a copy of Power Foods yesterday.
I stayed up late last night flipping through the pages, most everything looked delicious.
Tonight I tried three recipes, Walnut Crusted Chicken Breast, Baked Plum Tomatoes with Herb Rice Stuffing and Steamed Artichokes.

SO GOOD, is all I have to say about that.

Walnut Crusted Chicken Breasts

2 slices day old wheat bread (or throw bread in toaster)
1/3 cup walnuts
2 tablespoons of finely grated Parmesan cheese
Course salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large egg white
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 tablespoon grape seed oil (I used olive oil)
Lemon slices for serving.

Preheat oven to 425.
Combine bread, walnuts and Parmesan in food processor until fine crumbs form.
Transfer to bowl.
In a separate bowl beat egg white until frothy.

Season chicken on both sides with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and pepper.
Dip each chicken breast into egg white (coat completely) then dip into bread crumb mixture pressing to adhere.

Heat oil in large oven proof skillet over medium heat.
Cook chicken until lightly browned on one side 1-3 minutes.
Flip chicken and transfer skillet to oven, bake until golden brown 8-12 minutes.
Serve with lemon slices.



Baked Plum Tomatoes with Herb Rice Stuffing

 1/4 cup brown rice
8 large plum tomatoes 
Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
2 tblspoons finely chopped fresh basil
2 tblespoons minced shallots
2 tspns grated parmesan cheese
1 tspn extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine.

Preheat oven to 375. 
Cook rice as per rice bag instructions.
Cut thin slices out of bottoms of each tomato so they stand upright. 
Cut a small portion of the top off and scrape the flesh, seeds and juice from the center.
Save the seeds and juice in a bowl.

Stand tomatoes om a baking dish, sprinkle a pinch of salt into each.
Add 1 tspn salt to reserved seeds and juice.
Mix basil, shallots and rice together add to tomatoes.
Sprinkle parmesan on top of each.

Add wine to reserved seeds and juice mix and pour into the bottom of the baking dish.
Bake tomatoes until the tops are golden brown, 45-60 minutes.
Serve immediately.


Steamed Artichokes

1 lemon
4 artichokes

Prepare a bowl of water large enough to house artichokes
Peel 1 lemon, cut in half and squeeze the juice into the bowl.

Remove any tough outer leaves from artichokes.
Cut off the top quarter of each artichoke.
Use shears to trim the sharp tips of the leaves (be careful, I nearly stabbed straight through my finger with the leaves)
Trim the bottom stem just enough to stand upright.
Place the prepped artichoke in lemon water to keep them from growing brown until the rest are done.

Fill large pot with 2 inches of water, set a steamer basket or colander inside of pot and bring the water to boil.
Place the lemon peel and artichokes ends down in basket.
Cover and steam until bases of artichokes are easily pierced with a knife, 20 minutes.

Serve with dipping sauces of your choice.
We used butter and lemon.

Enjoy!!

xoxo


Thursday, December 27, 2012

A Cup of Thankful


This week I am thankful for:

Christmas, it is my favorite holiday and now that we have our little boy it is even more exciting.

Cracked pepper and olive oil Triscuits.

Watching Reese sit on his little stool and play the drums. (It has to be the cutest thing on earth he gets really into it)

Packing up orders to be shipped.
(you can find my vintage shop here)

Kye smothering me with kisses and hugs.

Unexpected trips back to Pasadena.. we meant to go to Ikea but I made a detour down that direction instead. Spontaneity is my middle name ;)

What are you thankful for this week?

xoxo


Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas Morning


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Merry Christmas!

I hope you all have a safe happy holiday.

xoxo


Monday, December 24, 2012

Weekend Faves

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Oh hey guys!
This weekend was pretty low key, I spent it with family, cooking pot roast and eating away my feelings :)
This weekend I made TWO trips to World Market for last minute gifts, Target for batteries (ehm... I ended up coming home with much more than batteries...) and my favorite vintage store where I scored some amazing things.

How was your weekend?

Have a wonderful Christmas!

xoxo

Saturday, December 22, 2012

GD Weekly Faves

This week I am wearing a Proenza Schouler Sweater from Target.
Wanting, monogram pictures for Reese's room
Listening to Swan Song by Giant Drag.
Reading Blue Highways by William Least Heat- Moon
(I got to sit in Coffee Bean ALONE and read this for 30 minutes without interruption.)
It's the simple things.

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas weekend.
Stay warm and away from the crazy parking lots at the place the we call the mall (AWFUL!)

xoxo

Friday, December 21, 2012

Around Here

1. Pirate window display (Reese loved this)
2. One of my favorite clothing stores in Downtown LA
3. Lunch at Tiara
4. Reese waiting for lunch
5. R initial necklace from Kye
6. Fire Truck and Monster shirt for Reese's birthday

Yesterday Reese and I made a last minute trip to downtown LA for work. (He's a working baby!)
We met with an old friend and had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Tiara Cafe 
Reese loved this place because it is toy themed.

I also received an early Christmas gift from Kye in the form of a much wanted "R" initial necklace.
Reese and I now have this bit where I say, "what does R stand for??" while I toss him in the air and say, " Rocket Reese!" He thinks its the funniest thing on earth.

What have you guys been up to lately?

xoxo

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Little Women


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There's nothing better than getting all dressed up in your most feminine attire, even if only for yourself.
It's always when I feel most beautiful.

What makes you feel beautiful? 

xoxo

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Gift Guide Under $50


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I hope you all are having an easy time with your holiday shopping.
Now that Christmas is around the corner I can't help but scramble around myself to find the perfect last minute gifts.
I hope this helps those of you that have a hard time deciding what to give to those you love and like ;)

xoxo


Eleven


We celebrated Reese's eleven months on earth yesterday.
This month he has really surprised us with the things that he is learning at a rapid rate.

As I mentioned recently, he says handfuls of words.

Shakes his head, "no, no no" and laughs.

He talks into his empty puff container and thinks its the funniest thing on earth.

Clicks his tongue, which is what he was doing above.

His favorite song is the ABC song from the Elmo Ipad App.

Animal crackers, chicken and spaghetti are his favorite foods.

He dances to every song and stops if he sees me watching.

Wants what ever mommy and daddy have in our hands and if we don't give it to him he'll crawl into our lap and take it away sneakily.

Likes looking under the couch, bed, coffee table basically all furniture with his head to the ground and butt up in the air to pull anything he can find out.


This has been an amazing eleven months, every night when Reese goes to bed I ask Kye what we did to deserve such an amazing kid.

xoxo


Monday, December 17, 2012

Weekend Faves


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We've been spending most of our weekends at first birthday parties, I can't even tell you how hard I choke back tears when we sing happy birthday to the babies.
We started class with most of these kids when they were newborns and now they are all so big!

I've pulled together some of my favorites this weekend.
As I mentioned last week we eat billions of animal cookies around here... 
After every meal Reese looks right at his cookie jar expecting two cookies, one in each hand. 

What were your favorite items over the weekend?

xoxo

Friday, December 14, 2012

GD Weekly Faves


This week I've been reading 'Pulp' by Charles Bukowski.
Listening to You Forget It In People by Broken Social Scene.
Wearing this mustard yellow sweater.
Watching Revenge and wanting these mary janes. 

What are your favorites this week?

xoxo

Thursday, December 13, 2012

A Cup of Thankful


This week I'm thankful for:

Pizza and ice cream party Fridays ;) 

Falling asleep at 9pm with Reese and sleeping 11 hours straight! This is a rare thing.

Peppermint baked Alaska from Trader Joe's.

Party planning, as stressful as it is, I can't wait to see the end result.

What are you thankful for this week?

xoxo

Cabin Fever

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Call me crazy but I really miss being in the mountains tucked away in my mom's cabin during this time of year.
I never really appreciated snow and all that comes with a small town until I moved away almost 7 years ago.

There's nothing like sitting near the fire drinking your favorite hot drink and watching the snow silently cover the trees.

Do you ever miss home?

xoxo

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Gift Guide Under $25


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If you are anything like me, gift shopping is the most tedious thing imaginable.
I normally end up buying people monogram coffee mugs (because everyone drinks hot beverages, right?!) and a notebook.
This year I've been a bit more organized when it comes to gift giving, maybe it's the mother in me.

What's your go to gift giving items?

xoxo

Weekend Wrap Up


Oh hey guys!

Long time no talk ;)
Things have been a bit crazy over here as I get ready for Reese's birthday bash, wash that down with a plethora of work and you'd get a crazy looking mommy up until 4am (last night).

I hope things have been much easier on the rest of you.

This weekend we celebrated Reese's cousin Nolan's first birthday bash, Curious George style of course.
He had so much fun as you probably are not able to tell by his facial expression in this picture.
It's so amazing to me how quickly these babies grow.
I kid you not, it seems like just yesterday little Nolan was born and I spent my time counting down the days until Reese was to be born.

Time just fly's when you have a baby.

How was your weekend?

xoxo

Friday, December 7, 2012

GD Weekly Faves


This week I've been reading Sexus by Henry Miller. 
I suggest you read some Miller if you are into dirty books.
50 Shades of Grey has nothing on this.

Listening to The Greatest by Cat Power. 
I forgot how much I loved this album.

Wearing this red zip cardi, I love red.

Watching American Horror Story season 1 on Netflix.
I actually watched the entire season in 2 days.

Wanting this rocking crocodile for Reese, how cute is this?

What are your weekly faves?

xoxo

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Reese


Dear Reese-

My tiny baby, you are getting to be so big!
Walking, talking doing silly things.

I can't believe that in a little over a month you are going to be one whole years old.

So far you have eight teeth and five more on the way (all at once... your dad and I are trying so hard to make you feel better)

Every time your daddy leaves the room you scream, "DADDY!" and search the room looking for him.
We can't help but laugh and be proud of the new things that you learn.

You share your food with mommy, you reach your hand out to stuff food in my mouth and then pull it away quickly and laugh.

We can't tell if you're laughing or crying half of the time... you are just that silly.
(We can tell when you are throwing a major tantrum though...)

You really like to dance. 

Your favorite food is chicken, you make your daddy proud ;)

You say handfuls of words. 
Screaming new ones while we are out in the car or in a store.

You hug and give me kisses on command and squeal.

There are billions of things that you do that make your daddy and I so proud.
We love you so much little man, there is nothing in the world that we wouldn't do for you.

xoxo

A Cup of Thankful


This week I am thankful for:

Reese eating every home cooked meal I make! He has been picky for the previous two weeks.

Wrapping Reese's gifts... I'm so excited for him to open them!

The new words Reese has said this week, "A" while reciting the alphabet, "no", "daddy" (when Kye leaves the room), "doggy", "fishy", "water" (when he's ready for his sippy) 

Cold weather, I love being out now.

Tickle monster attacking my stinky baby and dog.
(We play like maniacs)

American Horror story, such a GOOD show!

Animal crackers we eat a billion around here.

What are you thankful for this week?

xoxo

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Stocking Stuffers

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Hello!
I apologize for my absence yesterday, I've only had six hours of sleep total in two whole nights.
Reese is teething like no other (5 teeth coming in at once!) therefore, we are all not sleeping around here.
I've spent my nights rocking, bouncing and singing with hopes of calming my poor little boy down.
I could barely see straight let alone put words together. ha

With that said, I've gone ahead and pulled together some items that would make great stocking stuffers.
This year I'm playing Santa Claus and will be filling stockings.
I'm so excited for this!!

Are you playing Santa this year?

xoxo

Monday, December 3, 2012

Weekend Faves


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This weekend was extremely cold and rainy.
Reese and I loved it!
We spent most of our time indoors watching awful movies like Birdemic and Troll 3 haha is all I have to say about that...
I also online shopped for Reese and I.

How was your weekend?

xoxo