Throwback Thursday

So I was reading through old posts and I found this 2 year old post.  I find it hilarious because I was sad that Addison was going to Jekyll Island for a week with his class.  This week Addison is at Walt Disney World with his orchestra class.  He is in a different state without me!!!  I said in the 2 year old post that he was growing up too fast and will one day go to Disney without me.

He's growing up so fast.  This is the start of sleep away camp when

 he's gone for a month.  And going to Washington DC

 or Disney World with out me. I guess I have to realize

 if he's going to compete in diving and swimming
 there will be out of state meets.  So this is the
 beginning of his independence.  I think I better start working
g on having another baby.  :)  Maybe a girl this time so she
 will really never leave me.  Wait!!!  Slap me please, I am not
 ready to have another screaming new born baby.
  And definitely not ready to be pregnant again.  UGH!!

LOL!!!  I was right! I wonder what I will be saying in 2 years.  Will he be in Washington DC with his high school class?  Well, I have 4 more years with him so they better go by slow.  :)

While my baby is away, I have just been cleaning and reorganizing the house.  Everyone is like go out, have fun, go wild.  I think everyone is forgetting that I am 40 now and fun for me is a great movie and an awesome dinner party.

I am just going to plan a dinner party for Saturday and go see the movie Pompeii.  That's crazy enough for me.

I would like to mention my Favorite Things this week that make me smile while little man is having a blast.

1. JCrew Jewelry

Deco Arrowhead Necklace

Hubby got this for me for Valentine's Day and I can't wait to wear it.  I just need to figure out what to wear with it.

They also have a matching bracelet.

Deco Arrowhead Cuff

 I wonder how good I have to be to get this also.  :)


2. Anthropologie Maxi Dress

Tamsin Maxi Dress

We all know I am a sucker for a great maxi.  

3.  Anthropologie Tops

Amaranth Tunic

Talula Popover

Splatter Sky Buttondown

Can you tell I am ready for Spring?  It is cold and rainy here in Atlanta.  At least we have not been having crazy snow like last month.  I was starting to feel like we lived up North for a second.  

Well, JT is going to pick up sushi and we are going to watch TV.  My life is so exciting.  :)

Talk to you soon, 

Autumn Wardrobe and Anthropologie

Autumn is almost here and we all know it is my favorite season. Alamanac.com states the Autumn Equinox starts September 22, 2013 at 4:44 P.M EDT.  That is just around the corner so you know what that means.  SHOPPING!!!!

I love Autumn because of the clothes.  Long sleeve shirts and blouses, long skirts, hats, boots and sweaters.  It's cool enough for great clothes but not too cold that you have to cover yourself up and all your incredible clothes with a jacket.  I can already picture it, jeans tucked into fabulous boots!

I have mentioned before how much I love Anthropologie.  I decided to post some of my Autumn favorites so you can start adding to your Autumn wardrobe as soon as possible. 

Here are my two favorite buttondowns right now:

They are just beautiful.  I am loving the embroidery.  And they seem to be thin enough that you could wear them now (since it is in the high 80s in Atlanta still).

Look at these fabulous tunics:

I love tunics because you can wear them with jeans or leggings but they cover up what I want to be covered.  These are really cute and I feel like you can dress them up or down.  I think I am going to be wearing a lot of tunics this Autumn.  

Now let's talk skirts:

Loving these graphic skirts.  I am thinking I need to bottom one now and my husband needs to take me out in it.  I love the top skirt because you could wear with sandals or a pair of boots.  

I am fortunate to live in Atlanta so it doesn't get that cold here.  We can get away with wearing a cardigan or sweater through Autumn and half of winter.  My staple during Autumn is usually a short sleeved shirt, a cardigan,  a pair of jeans, and my favorite Frye boots.  

These cardigans would be a perfect addition to my wardrobe:

They are truly beautiful!

Ok I am done with online window shopping for now.  I hope I got you excited about Autumn.

Talk to you soon,

Birthday Crafting

So my best friend Chamel is turning 30 and she's having a birthday party at her house next weekend.  First, she wasn't going to have anything but her husband convinced her.  Then she didn't want to do anything big so I of course step in and said I would help.  30 is a big thing and I think we should celebrate.  I being the girl and crafter started brain storming when she finally decided to have a party.  I told her I would make invitations and she said "No, it's too late I will just use Evite."  I gasped and reminded her that it only takes one day for mail to be delivered in Georgia and it's way more nicer and personal that a damn Evite.  She agreed with me because she know I don't back down.  So I first we decided on a color theme, which is pink and white.  Then I made 18 invitations to send out pronto.  Here are the cards and my workstation:

After I finished the invitations, I needed to order party supplies.  

I found the cutest straws and balloons at Bake It Pretty.   So cute and pink. 

Now I need to decided what decorations I should make.   I found some great DIYs on so many blogs.  I just can't decide what to make.  I can't make it all.  

I have found cupcake toppers.  

Like these Fabric Ruffled Cake Toppers from The Sweetest Occasion. 

Or these Fabric Flower Cupcake Toppers from Paige of Style?

And then they are Flag Cupcake Toppers.

I found these on Hank and Hunt.  They are edible flags made out of Fruit by Foot.  Cute? 

Even The Sweetest Occasion made these edible ones:

The Sweetest Occasion also made ones out of contact paper.  

And Creature Comforts does flags with fabric.  I wonder if I can find pink and white fabric?

So I definitely want to do some kind of cupcake topper.  I just need to decide which one.  

I am totally making party hats since it is a kid friendly party.  

I found these at Oh Happy Day.  

Or what about these from Birthday Girl?

Or these from Fabric Party Hats from Momtastic?

  

I would also like to make Pinwheels fo the kids.  

Look at these little ones from Oh Happy Day.  

Oh and look at these Pinwheels from Style Me Pretty.  Wow!

And absolutely I have to make these Pinewheels from Lovely Indeed for her driveway. 

I am definitely making these Photo booth Props for Pictures.

I found these at Oh Happy Day.  I love them! With my new camera and these, her birthday pictures will be awesome!!!

And of course I have to do Mustache Prop also.  These are from Tiffany Kelley.

And what about decorations?  

These Colorful Mobiles are so pretty from Project Wedding.  

Or these Fabric Star Medallions from Martha Stewart.  

Or Wall Flowers from Dana Made It?

And these Fringy Streamers are Beautiful from Oh Happy Day.  

I will be doing pink flowers in vases.  Look what I found at Poppy Talk?  Painting Bottles and using them as vases.  I would love to find some cheap bottles and do this.  

So as you can see I need a lot of help.  I am all over the place.  I have too much to decide on and too much to make.  I only have 7 days to get all of this done on top of baking cupcakes and a cake. 

So please can everyone help me decide.  Please leave your comments on what you like to help me out.

Thanks!!!

Baking through my cookbooks

Well, dinner Tuesday was great but the time schedule did not work.  I didn't get the beef in the oven until 6:30.  Addison and I didn't eat until 9 because of all his activities.  And JT didn't get home from work until 3:30 AM (this means I didn't get to sleep until 4 AM because I can't sleep when JT isn't home).  So pictures were not taken of the wonderful dinner and the peach pies were not made.

Yesterday I spent the whole day getting my brakes done.  This sounds like a long boring process but it's fun for me.  My brother Lee owns his own auto shop.  Lee is The Godfather's brother so he's my brother in gay marriage.  :)  When I go to the shop, I actually learn how everything works.  They let me take off the tires off my car, they taught me how to shave down rooters, I learned how to do an alignment, and I even got to cut through steel.  It was fun working with my hands and I didn't get too dirty.  My favorite part was cutting through steel and watching the sparks go everywhere.  I know I'm a dork.

So after doing all my car stuff and taking Addison to swim practice.  I was too tired to cook and bake. Addison and I actually had cereal for dinner.  Yes, I do not make him home cooked meals every night.  I need a break sometimes, especially when I only got 4 hours of sleep the night before.    So, Addison and I had Cheerios and then he read me a bedtime story.  He's so cute when he reads to me because he acts like the adult and I act like the kid.  He tells me to go to bed and a scream one more story.  He also tells me he never acted like that when he was a baby (trust me he did and like he remembers).    So I fell asleep in the middle of the 3rd reading of "Where the Wild Things Are" and Addison put himself to bed (Yes, I know I have the sweetest child, he even paints my toenails).

Today, will be the day I make the roasted chicken and the peach hand pies.  I made a mistake of watching the cooking channel while we ate our Cheerios last night and it was all about apple pies.  If Addison had it his way we would have been making pies until 2 AM.  So today I have to make the pies with him or I might wake up in the middle of the night to find him in the kitchen making pies by himself.  Addison is very serious when it comes to pies.  I think I am more serious about cake.  So I will let you know how chef Addison's peach hand pies turn out.  

I also had a great idea about all my cookbooks.  I have recently purchased about 4 new baking books in the past 6 months and feel like I haven't used them that much.  I get one bake about 3 or 4 things out of it and then off to the next one.  I have decided I do not need to purchase another one until I completly get through them.  These are my four cookbooks:  

I just got Sugarbaby.  It's all about sugar and how to cook it in different temperatures.  I so excited about this book.  

See the old me would be obsessed with Sugarbaby for about a month and then off to the next cookbook but I'm going to change.  At first, I thought I could cook every recipe in one cookbook at a time (A la Julie and Julia)  but then I know how I am and I would get bored with one book very quickly.  So I have decided to cook through all these 4 cookbooks.  Each day (if I have time)  I will cook out of one of these cookbooks starting from the beginning.  I will share what I learned from these cookbooks, the mistakes I made and of course how everything turned out.  I thought it would be nice the have some kind of plan with my baking instead of me just baking all summer.   This will be interesting since all the books are about baking but they are all very different too.  The BAKED cookbooks are recipes that everyone has grown up with but making them better.  They have some very interesting recipes.  The Sugarbaby cookbook is teaching you all about sugar, so I will be learning and baking in this one.  I am excited to perfect macaroons in this cookbook.  And the Williams-Sonoma cookbook teaches everything you need to know about baking.  It breaks down the equipment to the ingredients.  It has has a chapter that is all about pies and one that is all about chocolate.  I believe after this adventure I will be a better baker.  

I will decide by tomorrow which recipe is first.  I hope you enjoy this baking adventure I am going on this summer.  :)

P.S.  I just thought this is another great way to work on my food photography since I have to document all my creations.  

Well, Bye for now!!!