Weekend Review

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all Mothers and to all of you who may not be a Mother in name, but mother others to make their lives better. I wish I could be as eloquent as Lissa of Humble Pie, but I'm not, so I will send you over to her blog to read her post in honor of Mother's Day, I Love Being Your Mama. It is truly beautiful, inspirational, and, of course, tear-inducing. So to my wonderful children (the 2 2-legged kids, and 1 4-legged kid), I'll just say "Ditto."

Let's catch up, shall we? I really took an online break this weekend. On Saturday, 3-Penny Princess hosted a tea for the DC J Crew Aficionadas. It truly lived up to all expectations. It was absolutely lovely. A gorgeous day. Beautiful setting. Fantastic company. These ladies are so amazing. It was so great to see old friends and to meet some new ones. The tea and goodies were just divine. The garden was so beautiful. I am a total loser and did *not* bring my camera, so head over to see 3-Penny Princess' or Slastena's blog to see pics. Maybe next time. Hey, the big fat SLR just did not fit into the cutie-pie J Crew rattan clutch! (although just about everything else does)

Update - Summerilla and Cloggsy have both posted their pics. They were both just lovely and I'm so glad I got to meet them!!

I ditched my planned outfit last minute as it was so humid, so I went with an AT Loft black shift dress (soon to be replaced by its fresher, woven twin at J Crew so that it will last longer) but mostly J Crew accessories - twisted crystal + fireball necklaces, rattan clutch, Joley flats, and the bouquet cardi. I did not, in fact, wear the hat as I just wasn't feeling it that afternoon. But oh, I should have when we were outside as my nose was a little pink that evening. (And I am such a sunscreen Nazi that I really am appalled at myself.)

Polyvore set for Tea:


What I Really Wore to Tea today - 5/9/09 by HeidiGblog featuring J Crew dresses

I wish I could have stayed longer at tea but my parents came up for the weekend so I needed to head back home and meet up with them. Hubby cooked filet on the grill. We just chilled out on the patio. And I got to road test the J Crew Dressy Strapless Dress I was posting about a week and a half ago. Final verdict? It was way comfy. A perfect piece to slip into for hanging out. For me, an excellent buy, but I need to alter the removable strap because it's just too long for me. In other words, there isn't that much there for it to hold up. And yes, I was barefoot the entire rest of the day...and it was good. It was my goal and goals are important, right?

Polyvore for later on Saturday:



What I *Really* Wore After the DC JCA Tea by HeidiGblog featuring J Crew dresses

Mother's Day started out with breakfast in bed (chocolate donut - yum, I love the ones that are yellow with the plastic-chocolate coating - but only if they have been chilled). Later in the morning, shrimp & grits, asparagus, and strawberries for Brunch, cooked by Hubby, of course. Hubby & kiddies surprised me with Wii Fit for Mother's Day (no, it wasn't a veiled insult; I had asked for it for Xmas). Speaking of veiled insults, when I was pregnant with E, I got a new digital scale for Mother's Day. Totally by request. I was like "after I have this baby and start trying to lose weight, I want to know if I've even lost 1 pound because that will motivate me." I'm such a numbers girl. But I always love telling people about the Mother's Day scale because they usually look so shocked and appalled. hehehehe.

I say surprise because we had just spent $1400 getting a new A/C for my car the day before so I thought that was my Mother's Day present. And like Dina said yesterday, "I've been in a car without A/C with kids in 90-degree heat. It's worth every penny!" Plus I got a lovely poem that M wrote in his class, and E made one of those plates with flower petals stapled/glued on that list different things she'll do for me. I opted for "wash your car" today, so she, M & hubby did a total clean out of the inside. You should have seen the bag full of stuff that hubby brought it - every nook & cranny was emptied, including the glove box & console. Outside of car was already clean...which for $1400 at the dealership, I would bloody well hope!

It's too bad there wasn't a "I will change my attitude and stop being grumpy" petal because I would have totally cashed that one in. What can I say - kiddies spent the night in the basement with Hubby as a special treat, and so they could do the breakfast in bed thing for me & my mom this morning...but they stayed up way too late, so I had 2 tired grumpy kids this evening. They went to bed early, so here's hoping tomorrow morning is not a total disaster. Nothing's better than having the health room tech call you and say "E told me that you said she should come to school and if she's not feeling well, she can come to the Health room" and me replying "I tell her that 3 days out of 5." I will note that since she started using the alarm on her clock, she has been better. But I'm not counting my chickens for tomorrow morning until they hatch themselves out of bed.

So I wore what I had originally planned for yesterday, since it was cooler today. I finally am wearing the henna tee that I obtained in the JCA weekly exchange. Love love love it! Note the accessories in the PV set differ from IRL (gold vs. silver/pewter). But I was too lazy to do a new set because hey, it's Mother's Day! I'm sure I will wear this as pictured at some point.

Polyvore set for Mother's Day:

Wearing Later Today - 5/9/09 by HeidiGblog featuring Old Navy tops

All in all, it was a wonderful day, a wonderful weekend. And now I'm off to bed...promise to catch up on blog reading tomorrow!!

Happiness in My Kitchen

We started a little science project this weekend. courtesy of 60+ bulbs that I had ordered from our fall fundraiser at school but never planted. When you are co-running the fundraiser, working, and being an actual parent at the same time, guess what? There's not much time left over for bulb planting. Thought we would try forcing the bulbs to see what happened. Some of them already had little shoots. They may not bloom, they may give us franken-flowers, but it should at least be interesting.

Recipe: bulbs, shallow-ish dish, pebbles, water not quite to the bottom of the bulbs.

Here we have 20 crocuses in the white wavy dish, 3 hyacinths in the footed glass dish, 30 tulips in the cream pie plate, and another 10 tulips in the glass bowl. If nothing else, this will make me smile.

This made me think about the other touches I've added to the kitchen over the past few months to make it better, more workable, and a happier place for me.

#1 - Fruit/veggie basket. Ok, it's technically called a plate rack, but at $16.99 from Target, whatever, I love it. It's just what I had been looking for...for several years. You see, the problem with most multi-level racks like this is that they are too tall to fit under the upper cabinets. And I really wanted it in this exact spot. This one just fits underneath (although you can't pull it directly out because of the lip under the bottom, you have to tilt it a bit). And it has 2 levels - so you can put smaller produce up top and bigger produce in the bottom, with plenty of room to reach in a grab something, like when your 8-year-old wants a banana. Note the open grid to let your produce get some air! But you can clearly see that I need to go to the grocery store because all that's left is tomatoes. Other fruit/veggies are in the fridge, I swear!

#2 - Baker on island. (from Sur La Table) This was a gift from my mom for my birthday. I love it, and want to keep it out instead of baking with it and storing it somewhere. So...voila, the perfect place to keep the "caca" papers as my friend, Claudia, calls them. School stuff, random to do lists, whatever. It's the perfect size to contain all the papers (10 x 14), and it's easy to shift onto another counter if you need to use the whole island. A definite improvement both aesthetically and organizationally. The papers were getting lost over by my laptop.

#3 - Utensils & seasonings. The flower pot is from an earlier purchased-from-Target bulb experiment. (Calla liliy bulbs with soil, it was even a Smith& Hawken product, total failure) But the pot is fantastic for all the spatulas, ladles, etc - a perfect size, just broad enough at the top. And I love the color. The tray keeps all the frequently used seasonings in 1 spot, right next to the stove - veggie & olive oils, salt in the lovely olivewood salt keeper I got Chef Hubby for his bday, and both pepper grinders (auto & manual) It's all nicely contained. Very handy and helpful! (A tip from Tyler Florence's latest book, which I highly recommend - great all-around resource on kitchens, cooking, techniques, tools, etc.)

#4 - Electric tea kettle. (from Macy's, and yeah, it's always on sale for $69.99 there) I love my tea. I'm not much of a coffee person - I love the smell of it, but need to add so much milk and sugar to drink it that I may as well just have a milkshake. I start every day with tea, and usually have several cups in the afternoon. It's a total comfort thing. So a healthy choice for me. Hubby got me this tea kettle for Christmas a few years ago and it just rocks. Super quick and the kettle detaches from the corded base to pour. How cool is that?

Humble Pie had a great posting about the kitchen earlier today. It really is the heart of the home. We all spend so much time there. It should be a happy place. So find something in your kitchen to make you smile...