friday finds: puppy necessities

4 Comments

This weekend we’re heading up to north Texas to visit my parents for my birthday, my dad’s 60th birthday, and mother’s day (all rolled into one weekend!) This is also Geoffrey’s first official road trip (6 hours!!), so we’re a little nervous/excited about it all. After packing up all of our things this morning (and his) I realized that in just these past few weeks, we have accumulated a lot of stuff for our little boy. Here are some of our (his) favorite items.

ff-puppy stuff
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

Clearly there is a striped obsession happening, but I mean it’s me. Are we really surprised? Please don’t think we really bought a $50 dog bowl for little Geoffrey. I actually scored a pair of these at HomeGoods a few weeks ago for $15! And you can also get a zillion of those pooper scooper bags at HomeGoods for like $2. They have amazingly cheap pet stuff! We found that carrot at Petsmart a couple weeks ago. It was his very first toy and he is OBSESSED with it. I can’t find it on their website, but they definitely still have them in store. In fact my parents’ cherubs each got one as well. So random! But then when I googled it, apparently it was Bolt’s favorite toy too! I totally forgot about that. And Geoffrey sort of looks like Bolt. It was meant to be :) Oh and he LOVES tennis balls. He tries to bring all three of them back to me at once, so one is in his mouth and he’s kicking (and tripping) the other two back to me. Favorite.

I’m sure you’re probably looking at that car seat and thinking. Really? But it’s purely for safety reasons. Heaven forbid we get in a wreck, we don’t want our little boy flying through the windshield or getting beat up by an air bag, so when we travel we have in hooked in in the back seat with his blanket and some toys and he just lays down and sleeps, which makes us feel more at ease for such a log trip.

What are your favorite puppy items that we should know about? I feel like everyone and their mom has that little hedgehog toy.

larger than life art

0 comments

Now that things are finally starting to come along in our home. (Walls have been painted, furniture has been arranged, etc.) We have a pile of art just begging to be hung. However, we have a LOT of wall space to cover, and I’ve been really wanting to make something pretty substantial. Here are some oversized pieces that I’ve been eyeing lately for a little inspiration.via aa1

aa7

aa8

via

aa9

via

aaa

via

Aren’t these ideas lovely? I just love the impact they create in a space. I have a couple of large blank canvases I plan to attack this week, so hopefully I’ll have something to share with you guys soon. I think our dining room walls will be the first to conquer :)

It’s the Girl’s Birthday!!

18 Comments

CatharineDerek_000

Today is May 15th. 27 years ago Catharine Stevens was born to a loving family who gave her a great home and endless love. Six months ago she married me (the boy) and changed my life forever. I think her parents did an amazing job raising her and I’m lucky to share in her life. I’m so glad we were able to find each other so soon in life because we have so much to look forward to together.

Please join me in wishing the Girl a very Happy Birthday!

your modern eats: peanut butter bacon pancakes

2 Comments

I promise this isn’t turning into a food blog, but this past weekend Derek’s parents were in town for last night’s graduation, and whenever we have people in town I just love to test out some recipes. They were all watching food network and drooling over these bacon infused waffles and I thought I’d take it a step further and make peanut butter and bacon pancakes! For dinner! (Brinner!) Because let’s face it, pancakes are just smooth waffles. And boy were they a hit!

Peanut Butter Bacon Pancakes

You will need:

1 egg

2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

2 tbsp peanut butter

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

5 slices cooked bacon, cooled and chopped into small pieces
really, you can have as much bacon as you’d like

Step One:

Start off by cooking your bacon however you’d like. I pan fried mine, but you could bake yours in the oven or whatever you prefer. Let cool, then chop into small pieces and set aside.

Step Two:

Beat together eggs, butter, peanut butter, buttermilk, and vanilla.

Step Three:

Add your flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well until smooth(ish) and add your bacon pieces.

photo 1 (1)

It’s going to look pretty lumpy, but smell amaaaaaazing!

Step Four:

Heat your frying pan over medium-low heat and add some oil, butter, or cooking spray to your pan for easy flipping.

Step Five:

Pour 2 tbsp of batter onto your pan. These cook up just like regular pancakes so leave them on one side until bubbles star to pop and then flip them.

Once they are golden brown they are ready to go, and just repeat this until your batter is gone.

I ended up making a double batch which easily fed four people. I can’t even describe the taste sensation with the babies. It’s ooey-gooey peanut buttery which makes them a lot moist-er than regular ol’ pancakes with little pockets of salty bacon. SO good. You have to make them!

Recipe derived from here.

congratulations are in order

4 Comments

Dear Husband,

Remember two+ years ago when you thought graduate school was never going to end? And we wondered how on earth we were going to get through it together with everything going on in our lives? That first semester, I was in the process of getting licensed so I was studying too which meant I was out of your hair. Good timing right? But then those next three semesters I wasn’t as busy so I was worried that I was going to bug you too much when you needed to be working on studio. But then you solved that problem and asked me to marry you. Good thinking! Then I spent that next year planning a wedding and leaving you alone (for the most part). Can you believe we actually got married the week of your finals. Who does that? I think it made our trip to Rome all the more relaxing though knowing you didn’t have to go back to school for a couple of weeks. But then I thought, “wait there is one more semester, how am I not going to drive him crazy?” But then we moved and got a puppy and I’ve been totally distracted with house projects and cuddle fests. See? You always thank me for supporting you for these past two years, but really you’re just the master of distraction.

Anyway, I am so so so proud of you for getting your Masters in Architecture (and for being offered a full-time position with the firm), and I’m so excited to finally live our lives as newlyweds without having to worry about homework or you spending all night in the studio while having to work the next morning. Here’s to trips to the dog park, aimless window shopping at La Cantera, weekend getaways, and cappuccinos every Saturday morning at our favorite spot. I love you, and now whenever we have to make stupid decisions (like where to eat for dinner or what movie to see) you have to decide because you are officially more qualified ;)

Your Wife

* * * *

In honor of tonight’s graduation ceremony, I made Derek a little celebratory cake. Also known as the cake that took all day. It was totally worth it though to see the look on his face.

Screen Shot 2013-05-12 at 8.23.27 PM

Why yes, that is an ostrich on top in lieu of a roadrunner because let’s face it. They don’t really make toy roadrunners. Or at least ones I could pick up at Michael’s on short notice. His first words were “what’s with the ostrich?” but then died laughing when I explained.

Screen Shot 2013-05-12 at 8.23.56 PM

I made the layers orange and blue for his alma mater. The blue layer was actually a blue velvet cake, while the orange was vanilla. Screen Shot 2013-05-12 at 8.25.38 PM

It was a big hit! And considering it’s two cakes combined, we’ll be feasting on this sucker for a while, which works out considering Wednesday is MY birthday! Weeee!

PS: Here is the recipe for vanilla layer (and frosting), and here is the recipe for the blue velvet layer