let summer begin

This will be the summer of trying new recipes.
On Saturday I made California pizzas from Ina Garten (yep; I made the dough into little pizza pies) and you can add your choice of vegetables, fresh mozzarella, turkey sausage, and the husband requested anchovies. gross. Easy to prepare and delicious ...a keeper (although I will have to invite friends over next time...the recipe makes a lot of pizza).
For Memorial Day Monday I decided to go classic Americana and make fried chicken. Seriously. Can you believe it?

The last time I ate fried chicken has got to be 20+ years ago. We were in Grand Lake, Colorado at Dougal's Cafe where they serve you family style...really good; but not something I ever attempted in my kitchen. It was a Food Network recipe and it was tasty. The chicken was really moist and tender and something different for us. Are you a southern fried cooking sort of family? We really don't eat too much fried food so for me to attempt this was *crazy* but it turned out really well.

Going further on the "classic" start to Summer we finished the night off with strawberry blackberry shortcake from Joy the Baker.

Tomorrow we'll be looking for some nice, new SALAD recipes so we can fit in our summer clothes.

summer sizzle!

The photo shoot for Dressing On The Side is being posted as we speak... and it's HOT! Click on over to Galaxie Andrews blog (our amazing photographer) to see part ONE of an amazing day.

let them eat cake

Parents like to thank teachers with cake. and more cake. and more cake.

The teachers "lounge" (I say that with a grimace...think bad lighting, formica tables and chairs, and add in a few grumbling teachers) is now full of whole cakes, slices of cake, and leftovers of what were delicious cakes. It's a good thing we'll have the summer to work it all off. Happy Summer for those of you who get to enjoy a couple months off--mine begins today!

this is it

let the celebrating begin!

It's the last week of school.

I love it that kids think that they're the lucky ones who get the summer off...grin.

a blustery day in the southwest

watch out Oklahoma ...there's a lot of wind headed your way. I hate wind.

*via fairybread

enjoy your weekend!

Have an amazing, relaxing, creative weekend everyone.

*via weheartit

going postal?

Here's the deal. I need to go to the post office almost on a daily basis. Orders come in for my etsy shop and I like to get them out ASAP. My husband is kind enough to volunteer to bring packages to our post office early in the morning and it's all good. Every once in a while, I'll bring the packages in and then the problems start to happen...

We live in a small town. Small enough to get to "know" the checkout people at the grocery store and the post office people behind the counter. At out post office there's Shelly (who we love--quick, kind, and suggests cheaper ways to ship when she sees it), Efficient Ed (uses every movement to the post office's advantage...he's quick), a few other employees that I see now and then...but then there's Ron.

Ron is the epitome of why the post office gets a bad name. Slow, lackluster, overweight (although at my last visit he told me he'd lost 25 pounds on the South Beach Diet.I could go on with what he eats but you get the drift..he likes to talk) He's in a local band and is always pushing for husband and I to come watch him perform. again. and again. and again.

I can handle all that. It's chit chat. small talk. no big deal. BUT--

when I mentioned that his band must be getting good to be playing so much he brought up an analogy to sex which kind of threw me. Did he just say that?! Isn't he a US government employee? Why did he say the word "sex" when he's behind the counter?

Whatever. I let it slide. Stamp those packages and get me out of here.

Yesterday I had quite a few packages to go out and brought them in and of course (lucky me) I get Ron to help me. Chit chat. Small talk. And then he says "here, you have to read this."

He hands me a 3x5 index card with what looked like a poem about what a woman is looking for in a man. On the bright side--they were all positive qualities and things that I would agree with. As I'm reading it I'm wondering why he gave this to me to read and "yes, those are going to Germany, Ron". I was distracted and just wanted to get the frickin packages mailed out and at this point I'm going to pretend I'm reading just to keep the process moving.

Then Ron says "now turn the card over. It's what a man is looking for in a woman." I'm thinking "what? whatever? are those packages first class? did you get my delivery confirmation on those?" In other words, I was being polite but this frickin card is distracting me but I'm hoping not you Mr. Post Office Employee from doing your job.

I turn the card over and the card says something to the effect of " A man is looking for a nymphomaniac gymnast with big boobs who cooks, cleans..." by this time I'm like "WTF?" and the rest of the card is a blur. I hand the card back and while he says "that's funny, huh?" I'm just sort of stunned and ask what the total is for all the shipping.

SO--my plan is to call Shelly (who is the supervisor) and let her know how uncomfortable this is making my post office visits and if she could talk to Ron about what real small town small talk is and to not make people feel uncomfortable or weird. It's either that or I have to go to the other post office across town for the rest of my days living here.

What would you do?

summer project

Loving this fabric and thinking how my pair of club chairs might be needing a new summer look.
*via urbangrace

jumping for joy

Thousands of teachers jobs were saved when the temporary tax bill passed tonight!

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

what will happen?

Not sure about your neck of the woods, but tomorrow is a big day for teachers (and students) around here. A temporary tax bill is up for consideration--and without a "yes" majority vote--many of our arts, physical education, and music programs will be cut.
Is your state going through the same budget cuts?

baby baby

what a wonderful weekend meeting this new and special person. so sweet and so small...just learning about this thing called life.

starting the weekend off early

All my bags are packed (well...sort of...they will be in the next few hours) to travel to Northern California to meet a very special someone. Ruby just turned one week old and I couldn't be happier to be the first official member of her family (besides mom and dad) to meet her and welcome her to this world. Have a great weekend everyone!

mad for stripes

Have you noticed stripes are EVERYWHERE this season? They're the ruffles of summer...






I just had to *stop* when I saw this little number from Shabby Apple. SO sweet with a french sex appeal. When you click over you'll also notice the more than reasonable price tag...sold!
If you don't know Shabby Apple then take a look around--
"A return to what dresses were always meant to be — a one-piece outfit. No need to add anything...no tank tops, no cardigans, nothing (except accessories, of course!)."

*images via weheartit, jcrew, shabbyapple

Movie Madness

We've been watching some good movies over here with the latest being "Coco before Chanel" on Mother's Day (it's my day...and I'll watch what I want to). We are in need of some movies or a good television series for the upcoming rerun summer months though...suggestions?

Happy Mother of Mother's Day

Welcome to the world Miss Ruby Sophia Dunlop! Our daughter and her husband were blessed with the birth of a little girl on Tuesday, May 4th, but it took over 48 hours for the sweet one to be given a name...they just wanted it to be the perfect fit.

So now we have to deal with the name " grandma". Just the sound of it and the way our country portrays a "grandma" is not my style (obviously I've formed an opinion from those media portrayals we've seen) So, I did some research of what a few other countries call the grandest of mothers:

Afrikaans- ouma
Belarusen -babka
Croatian -baba
Czech -babicka
Danish- bedstemoder
Dutch -grootmoeder
Finnish- mummo
French- grand-mère
Frisian (spoken in Germany and the Netherlands) beppe
German- Oma
Greek- gigia
Hawiian- Kupuna wahine
Hungarian -nagyanya
Italian- nonna
Latin- Avunculus
Latvian- VECAMATE
Maltese -nanna
Mapunzugun- kuku
Maori- kuia
Odawa (Canadian Indian) nookmis
Ojibwe (Canadian Indian) nookomis
Polish -BABKA
Portuguese -avó
Romanian BUNICA
Slovak -BABICKA
Slovenian- stara mama
Spanish -Abuela
Swahili -bibi
Swedish- FARMOR
Turkish -ANNEANNE
Ukranian -babusia
Urdu- dadi
Yiddish -BOBE


I'm leaning toward the italian "nonna" (pronounced noh-nah) What did you call your grandparents? Or, what do your kids call your parents?

the long and winding road

thinking up an idea can be a *snap*, this-is-it, amazing ,"I've got it!" sort of thing or it can be quite the journey.

I'm an idea person.

My usual line after my husband says, "that's a great idea" is "I've got a million of them."

It's true and that can also be a problem.

There are times when you think you have the best idea ever but when some things don't exactly fall into place the way you thought they would, the idea takes a right turn onto a country road where it's difficult to get back on the freeway again but you are enjoying the view...so, you may as well stay for awhile and see where this goes.

I think there are times as a creative person when you think...I'm not sure I'm ready to take this creative road trip again but most of the time you're up for a new adventure.

What about you? Is it quick and easy or is it the "hold on...this is going to be a bumpy ride" path to creating?

it was that kind of sunday...

it was windy. it was chilly and the sun was not shining all too much. what to do?
husband and I proclaimed it PAJAMA DAY and were in our pajamas all day...loved it.
*disclaimer: I actually DO wear pajamas and husband has more of a flannel sweatpant thing going on that he does not actually wear to bed but for the purpose of our pajama day...we declared them to be pajamas.