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,

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!!!

French Cooking and Hand Pies

Sorry for not posting Monday. I received my Amazon books yesterday and I pretty much read all day. The main thing I have learned about food photography is natural lighting. Even watching the live classroom this weekend the number one lesson was natural lighting. All food photographers agree that food looks better with natural light and one should only use a flash or other lighting if it is totally necessary. Well, this isn't good for me. JT gets home late and with all Addison's activities I don't start cooking until 7 or later. By the time dinner is done and I would like to take pictures, it is dark outside. I guess I could start cooking dinner earlier and everyone would just have to reheat it. This would be better for me and probably Addison, I hate rushing to get dinner done and I feel like we eat so late. But I hate that JT has to eat alone sometimes. Well, this week I will try to start dinner earlier and see if it works with all of our schedules. Natural light here I come.

So I have dinner planned for the next two days but I don't know what I am going to make first. My favorite channel is the Cooking channel (of course). My favorite shows are Unique Eats and Unique Sweets. I also have a cooking show that I love too, it's French at Home. I like the others but this one relaxes me. I love french cooking and Laura makes everything look so easy. She has a sweet relaxing voice and the background music is relaxing as well. After watching many of her shows I have decided to make two recipes from her. I will be making a Butter Roasted Chicken with Roasted Vegetables and Beef Bourguignon. Both of them take about 2 to 2 1/2 hours to make so I need to work around activities and think about time. I think I will make the Beef Bourguignon tonight. Addison has diving and then dive team. So we won't be back until 8. I think I can set it in the oven to cook for 2 hours if I put it in by 6. We will let you know how it turns out. Thank God for oven timers.

Oh next I found this great recipe for Bourbon Peach Hand Pies from Smitten Kitchen. I have been wanting to make them for about 3 weeks. I think I am finally going to try today and tomorrow. The only reason I have waited so long is making the dough will take a lot of time. You have to chill it about 3 times. It's a very time consuming recipe but reviews have said it is totally worth it. So with me luck. I have about 5 hours of baking and cooking I want to do. I must be crazy.

Well before I leave you here's some kitchen and home things I like. I just love Anthropologie kitchen stuff. I have also found some stuff at IKEA that's cute for the home or kitchen also. I thought I would show you all some things. The white basket and blue pitcher are from IKEA. Can you believe it? The rest are from Anthro. I just love the cute bottle openers, the key and the little chairs.

Well I need to start baking. I will try to post tonight to let you all know how everything turned out.






Au Revoir!!

Food Photography

Sorry for not posting last night but Blogger was down for maintenance.

I am excited about something this weekend. I found the website Creative Live from the Pioneer Woman's blog. It's a live classroom with a photographer explaining and teaching certain parts of photography. This weekend is Food Photography with Penny De Los Santos, who is the food photographer for Saveur Magazine.   It is free to watch it live and $99 to download. It starts today. I am actually watching it right now. I have a very busy weekend but I will be logging in when I have time to watch her. If you would like to watch you can find it here. Today there will be an interview with the Editor in Chief of Saveur Magazine and a Image critique with Director of Photography for Saveur. Saturday and Sunday are shoots. I hope I have time Saturday or Sunday to watch a couple of these.

Speaking of food Photography I just ordered this book, Plate to Pixel.  I'm very excited for this to arrive.  I read the reviews and everyone is saying the pictures are incredible.  I ordered this book because I noticed the food pictures on some people's blogs, they make every look beautiful and delicious.  I think reading this book will take my food photography up a notch, oh and the online classroom this weekend will help as well. 

     

I will let you know how the book is, it will arrive Tuesday and I will probably be reading it all day.  I hope you all will notice a difference in my food photography skills.  :)  

Hunting for Peonies

I love flowers in the house.  JT picks me up hydrangeas every Friday.  I love hydrangeas they are colorful, big and fluffy. But the main reason I love them is that they last long.  I can have fresh cut hydrangeas in my house for over a week.  We tried many different flowers like tulips but they just seem to last 4-5 days.  So I just emptied my vase and instead of getting some new hydrangeas I have decided I want peonies.   The problem is I can't find them.  Well, I have actually looked looked.  We buy our flowers at Whole Foods.  They have great flowers for a great price and they last.  Well, I saw peonies there last year but I haven't seen them since.  Every week I walk in there and look but nothing.  So today I am going to Whole Foods and if I don't find them there I'm just going to have to call the florist and see if they have them.  I'm not a florist type of girl and I don't have florist type of money.  I would love to be able to pick up an arrangement or two at the florist every week for my home but I haven't hit that lottery yet.  :)  It's like Addison's activities or flowers.  Hmmm, Addison has been a little crazy lately.   Flowers it is!  We all know I wouldn't do that to my little prince.  So I guess wish me luck on my search for peonies and pray they aren't expensive or this might be the last peonies I buy.

I just read oh happy day blog.  Jordan lives in Paris (jealous) and she says all the Paris markets have peonies right now.  Here are some of her pics.

Oh before I go it's Wednesday so it's my Favorite Things.  I got a new citrus juicer just to make the lemon bars.  I also realized I needed one when I made the lemon curd.  So i went to Williams-Sonoma (of course) and got this one.

i'm telling you now if you don't have one don't waste your time with others this is the one.  This one gets all the juice out of your lemons or limes.  You put the citrus upside down and it ends up turning it inside out.  They told me how wonderful it is at the store but I wasn't believer until I tried it.  We are going to have lemons and limes all summer.  

I also have to mention the Microplane graters.  I have had many graters and I thought they did I good job until I purchased the Microplane graters.   These graters make grating so easy and smooth.  I don't know what it is but I love them.  I grate a lot, freshly grated nutmeg,  cinnamon sticks, lemon, limes, and cheese.  When you cook and bake a lot you should have some good graters and these are the ones.

I have the rasp grater, a smaller one that does spices, and then a bigger one for cheese.   They have a different sizes for everything you need.  I just noticed they have a new one just for citrus.  I will be putting that on my wish list.  

Also go to the Microplane website and see all they have.  Williams-Sonoma doesn't carry everything.  I just noticed on Microplane.com they have a Sea Salt shaver.  Wow!  Fresh shaved sea salt.  That 's a whole other level. 

I know, I should just work at Williams-Sonoma.  I have a friend that works there and he told me I should work with him.  I might take him up on his offer.  Some part-time hours would be nice I just have to see about Addison's schedule.  But I'm worried once you work at a place you love, you end up not loving that place anymore.  And it's not like I would be bringing home any extra money, my whole paycheck would go to everything I want in the store.  :)

Bye for now.

Happy Mother's Week

So I had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday, JT made me breakfast (his famous waffles and volcano eggs), Addison and I played video games for 3 hours (Killzone 3), and then we went to go see Thor in 3D.  It was a perfect relaxing geeky Mother's Day.  Addison also surprised me with the cutest heart necklace and JT cooked breakfast on my new skillets I got for Mother's Day.  Yes, on top of my wonderful Anthropologie measuring cups JT bought me 2 new All-Clad skillets.  I actually had to pick them up at Williams-Sonoma because JT had to work all day and night Friday and Saturday but they are from him.   I am in love with my new skillets.  They are so pretty, I don't want to cook on them.  :)

Pretty, Shiny

Oh I also forgot to mention the Rainbow cake I baked for Kevin's birthday.  It turned out so cute and the boys loved it.  This cake was a lot of work though!  I usually love baking because it doesn't take long.  You just have to whip up the batter, bake it and then make the icing.  But with this cake you have to weigh the batter split the batter in 1/8 and then dye the batter 8 different colors.  Oh and I only have 4 cake pans.  It was a lot of work and that just the cake part.  The icing is the swiss meringue icing, it's delicious but takes a lot to make.  It 's only egg whites, so you have the split the eggs and then make the meringue and this recipe calls for 14 egg whites.  To make meringue, you have to put sugar and egg whites in a saucepan and heat until the sugar has melted, then put in a mixer on high speed.  But that's just the meringue then you need to add the butter to make it buttercream.  This frosting takes about 30 mins sometimes more.  It's one of my favorite icings but on top of making the rainbow cake it was a chore and a lot of egg whites (19 egg whites in total the cake uses 5).  You can find the recipe here.

Oh and before I go I leave you with Luna in Addison's old Underroos, they are Star Wars C3P0.

Best Week Ever!

So far my first week out of school has been fabulous!!!  I have cleaned, reorganized, hung out with friends, caught up on my DVR recordings, and even baked.  I'm am so far loving all this extra time and no stress.  I'm not worrying about homework, lab or studying for a test.  I'm not freaking out about a grade.  It's wonderful!

Wednesday I had a late lunch with Ken and Addison.  We went to the Brazilian Buffet.  Mmmm Rump Roast!  And Friday Ebony and I went to Antropologie  and then had lunch at Taqueria Del Sol.  They have the best fish tacos.  I'm enjoying meeting up with friends for lunch.  I usually never have the time.


Here's what I got at Anthro.  It's one of my mommy day present JT asked me to pick up.  They are measuring cups.  Don't you love them?

Coffee and Silhouettes

I'm still sick but feeling better.  I just wish I could breathe out of my nose.  JT and Addison have been more than helpful.  And since this is the last week of school I have nothing due so that's a relief.

So while I surfed the web today in my sickly bed I found the funniest link from Pioneer Woman.  Best Week Ever did a post of 50 Photos of Basset Hounds and it's hilarious!  I needed this laugh.  I was laughing so hard I was snorting and crying  (because of my stuffed up nose).    You can check it out here.  Trust me you are going to want to send this link to everyone.  I posted it on my Facebook because I had to share it with everyone.

Here are some other things great things I have found on the web today.

I found these coffee mugs on Photojojo.com.

They are coffee mugs that look like a camera lens.  And the Nikon one even zoooms!!!



You can find The Camera Lens Mug at the Photojojo Store!


This is interesting, Silhouette rings.

You can send them a picture of your or anyones silhouette and they create a ring for you.  They also make bangles.  What a neat idea?  You can buy them here.

I love asubtlerevelry.com.  It's one of my new favorite DIY blogs and now they have started an online magazine.  So my favorite online magazine is Styled Mag.  It shows great ideas that anyone can create and how to throw a fabulous party.  You can find it here.


I am still trying to mess around with Photoshop.  It's been difficult since I have been sick.  My laptop doesn't have enough power to run Photoshop well, it makes it very slow.  So I use Addison's iMac in his room and I'm trying really hard not to get him sick.  Here's a new picture I worked on.  I just cropped it, lightened up, and tweaked a couple of things.  I'm really enjoying Photoshop so far.

BEFORE

AFTER

And another one of Dolce.  I took about 100 pictures of her Easter Sunday.  She loves taking pictures and I was so happy since Addison hates taking pictures.   She looks like Betty Bop to me sometimes so I wanted her to have I kind of Pop Art old look.  I love it that her eyes and hair are so dark.  She could be a Movie Star. 

BEFORE

AFTER

As you can tell the Adcock family has some beautiful girls.  Well, time to take some medicine and get some rest.  Oh look what Grandma gave Addison today so he wouldn't get sick.  

So not funny!!!