Tomato Plants

Today I bought two tomato plants at the Fremont Sunday Market.

Lucky thinks they'll be dead in two months.

To be perfectly honest I can't necessarily rule out that possibility but I'll try my hardest to keep them alive. I've got a gardening expert coming out next weekend cough mom cough so I might learn a thing or two.

The left one is named Betty and the right one is named Sally.

Cute as a Button

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a big Neil Gaiman fan. I love his books, his movies, I subscribe to his blog RSS, follow him on Twitter, heck – I even bought The Graveyard Book because he said he wanted pie! Soooo, yeah, big fan.

Another person I follow is Bakerella. She does amazing baking projects and I swoon every time I go to her blog. I’m still planning on making cake pops but with everything else going on I barely have time to COOK let alone bake these amazing pops. Soon, I promise.

You’re probably wondering what these two people have to do with each other, and I swear there is a reason, but first a little backstory: Kate’s daycare is doing a whole week of different themed events and Thursday’s event involves treats. Each kid has to bring in treats for the whole class that doesn’t have peanuts included. Kate originally wanted to bring goldfish crackers but another little boy was already set to bring those so we needed a different plan.

Now, this is one of my first school-related activities ever. I always wanted to be one of those parents who gave their kids something creative to bring to the class but, let’s face it, this might be one of the only times where my kids actually bring in something homemade and not from the store the morning the treats are due. I have a lot of ambition but my creative juices pretty much stop the second I get home from work. On a rare occasion I will stay up to 11pm to finish a project but the last time that happened was when I made owls for the Jet City Tattoo Expo three weeks ago!

Best of Etsy: Ceramics

Last week I had read a posting from CasaSugar.com about creative bathroom storage ideas.  One of the storage items was a cute set of 3 ceramic hanging bowls that were designed for the kitchen but gave the bathroom a refreshing look. 

While checking out the bowls I got hooked into looking at other ceramic goods for sale at Etsy.com.  I loved so many different ceramic items that I wanted to share them with you all.  These are but a few of the amazing items; I highly recommend checking out Etsy for yourself and then you'll have to watch your spending - there are too many great items to choose from!

Can These BE Any Cuter?

I just have to say that I love Twitter.  It has pointed me toward tons of different websites about all kinds of different things like Texts From Last Night and Why Mom Drinks Rum, and has kept me up to date with breaking news and what would happen if Rainn Willson was king.

One thing I did see this morning was a re-tweet from someone I follow regarding a lady, @momadvice, being named one of the top power moms on Parents Magazine Power Moms list.  I'm all about the mom blogs right now so I wanted to check out what made her a top power mom.  I haven't looked through her website completely yet but there seems to be a lot of good information right at your fingertips.  Sidenote: Funny, out of the top 10 "power moms," I already follow 4 on Twitter! Hmph, I seem to be on the right path....

On the Mom Advice downloads and printables page, I found some super cute wallpapers that I just HAD to share.  Seriously, can these BE any cuter?  These are only two of the five wallpapers available, check out the rest at the Mom Advice downloads page.

Ode to the Simple Life

At work last week, Violet and I were chatting and we somehow we got on the subject of lasagna. I had mentioned that it was Lucky’s favorite meal and I realized that I hadn’t made a nice big batch of goodness in quite a while. I had mentioned it to Lucky this morning and he practically throws cash at me saying, “Here, go get some stuff for lasagna.” LOL

I spend the afternoon making a batch and for the first time, I have a helper. We had fun but I’m going to have more fun while I’m eating it!

Erin's Family Lasagna

Flowers, Owls, and....Seahawks?

I have been really busy lately but have been doing things WAY outside of my norm. It started with baking, which is interesting because I always said that I cook – not bake, but it has moved on to more crafty projects.

If you haven’t heard, the Jet City Tattoo Expo is coming up and I wanted to do a little som’in, som’in for when we’re there. I decided to make some flower hair clips and picked up a few things to get started. After about six clips I got bored with flower so wanted to make something else instead. (I got bored with the TYPES of flowers more than anything else; I just have to go get some different flowers to use.)

Sorry about the blurry pic, I couldn't get a clean shot.

So I wanted to try to make a cute little owl I found on Cut Out & Keep. A handy website for all the DIYers, a community where you can post your projects that you’re working on, view other people’s projects, and check out all the how-to posts if you want to try something new. I have trolled that site for a while and finally bit the bullet and made a cute and simple little owl. It worked well but I followed the pattern to a T and my owl came out the size of a quarter. I have blown up the pattern a bit and we’ll see how that turns out.

Pecan Pie Goodness

The holidays always put me into a crafty mode and November thru January is the time when I bake, make holiday cards, and want to learn more crafts. This holiday season was nothing different. It's the beginning of January and I'm only starting to come down off the feverish crafting season.

Over the last two days Kate and Oliver have been driving me crazy so I wanted to do something crafty to help me relax and not make me go all Falling Down on everyone. If anyone had been reading my Facebook posts during that time know there was a good possibility of that happening. :D

Every year I always make one or two pecan pies during the holiday because they are Lucky's favorite. Quick background: Before I met Lucky I never made a pie that I couldn't find the recipe on the back of the filling can. It was either one of the Jello cheesecake pies or pumpkin pies and, although they are both good in their own right, they aren't my definition of a "real" pie. A homemade, made from scratch, takes-all-day-to-make pie that sits on the windowsill to cool. Of course people are looking in at me at my kitchen window in my house with the white picket fence and children playing out front. Yeah, that happens a lot so naturally homemade pie-baking happens a lot as well.