iris!!!

i blinked and a whole week went by...

last weekend we were finally able to steal a night away and celebrate our anniversary.  we didn't have any concrete plans, but we had tossed around the idea of just getting away for a little overnighter maybe just a couple hours away and the kiddos were going to spend the night at grandmas.  at the last minute we noticed noticed that IRIS from Cirque du Soleil was playing at the kodak theater.  a million years ago before kids we went to a cirque du soleil show and it was amazing, so we thought it would make a perfect date night.

IRIS was beyond amazing!!!  it is a journey through the world of cinema.  everything about the show was perfect for me: the costumes, the artistic journey through cinema and of course the breath taking acrobatic feats...perfect!!

this review sums it up nicely.

if you are in the area, go and see it!

we happened to score seats right in the middle in the orchestra level.  they were perfect!

it was a perfect night...

thanks babe!

green food...polaroids

 last week flew by just a little too fast for me.

so it's another monday and this is the second week of my polaroid monday series.  

this one again has a colored theme...green.

it started out just food themed, but as i was going through the pics i noticed that green was in every picture...so here we are with green food polaroid monday.

the colder weather always makes me want soup.  

this tortilla soup is one of my favorites.  

it usually consists of :

chicken

black beans 

rice and 

whatever veggies i have on hand 

(carrots, celery, corn, tomatoes, etc)

onions and garlic

the toppings are what really make this soup oh so yummy:

cheese

cilantro

lemon juice

chips

diced onions

and diced avocados

 a couple years back my brother gave me a salsa recipe that consisted of tomatillos.  

before that i had never seen or used tomatillos. 

 now i can't make salsa without them.  

if you have never used them you should give them a try.  they come with a thin paper like skin that is easily peeled off.  i usually put them in boiling water just long enough until they change color.  they start out green then change to a lighter yellowish green.

 andy is the real salsa king in our house but i really enjoy making salsa also...and i especially love eating it!

i never really measure or count what goes into my salsa but this is a loose recipe of this super easy salsa:

10 tomatillos

2 avocados

2 garlic cloves

1-2 serrano chiles

salt to taste

boil tomatillos.  blend all ingredients except salt in a blender.

add salt and pulse.

taste. 

then eat about half of a bag of chips with your yummy salsa.

 i told you i love me some soup.  i had never made this soup before but i will definitely be making it again.

i tried this recipe for these sticky buns.  

i grew up eating pull-aparts at my grandparent's house.  oh my!

so when i saw this recipe i wanted to give it a try.  it sounded pretty easy with the frozen dough.  mine didn't come out looking like hers...i think because my package of frozen dough came with three loaves instead of two so i made two different trays.  mine came out a little dry and just a little burnt.

still pretty yummy though...it's probably good they didn't come out like hers or else i probably would have eaten the whole tray.

i'm kind of liking this colored theme, i think i might stick with it for my polaroid mondays...we'll see.

happy monday!

mittens in the making...

 'mom, i want to make some mittens'

she was holding up a ball of yarn and a crochet hook.

i have tried to teach her how to crochet a couple of times but it was always a little too difficult and she didn't last too long.

mittens, hmmm...

we started with just a simple chain.

i showed her once and she figured it out.

 love it!!

she decided to just make me a bracelet and next time we would work on the mittens

next time...

Pink...polaroids

i love the look of polaroids

 so i wanted to make some of my own pics look like polaroids.

i'm going to start a little series making polaroids hopefully every monday...

today is the first in the series...PINK

i just happened to notice that there was quite a bit of pink in my pictures over the weekend

1. pink dress 
2. gathering hearts
3. pink dried flowers
4. ella already getting ready for valentine's day.
5. first time riding the big red bike

i like it messy

i want to try this double knot tomorrow...love it!!!

i'm not the perfect hair, not one hair out of place kind of girl...

i like it a little messy and a little bit imperfect.

go here for the tutorial.

sun rays

this is what i say when i'm cold and i am trying to warm up...

i find the sun rays and soak them in.

yesterday the kids wanted a snack when ella got home from school.  i set them up at the dining room table and within 2 seconds of sitting down ella said, 'can we go outside and

  eat the sun 

while we have our snack?'

of course...it was a beautiful day

 i love you sun rays!

embracing this little miss...

and her tongue in my eye

what more can i say?

linking up here

supplies

 most mornings if we can't find ella in bed she is in the play room drawing. 

when i first set up their play room i put most of their art supplies on the shelves and it was kind of hard for the kiddos to get to them.

a couple of months ago i set up the craft table with just a couple of supplies and that was all she needed.

everything is now easily accessible.

 in a basket on the table there is also a stack of paper.

the trash bucket is just a large coffee canister with a patterned paper taped around it.

 i love this little gift she made for yoshi...our sweet little pooch.

yoshi couldn't wait for her special gift...can't you tell

 the note read:

'heart' EK to Yoshe 

girl.  it is jus a list 

for you Yoshe

girl.  

I brot u a gift

I hope you wil lik

it Yoshe girl.

too sweet!

i love that she loves to give most of her drawings away to someone.

i like to use them on homemade cards when we give a gift.

this 'rander show' drawing is one of my favorites

i set up above the craft table a spot to display some of their drawings.  

most are just taped to the wall with pretty washi tape.

pencil, pen, brush

i sketch, i doodle...
i, like most kids, filled the margins of my notes in school with doodles and sketches...filled!

some things haven't changed.
i LOVE school supplies and i think i have finally realized why...
a brand new pencil or a brand new pen with a fine tip that writes perfectly, sigh...love it!

i don't have a lot of time to just doodle away the way i used to during school, but i do find little blocks of time here and there.

these are just a couple of my recent sketches.

this is a recent painting i did for my grandparents...they celebrated their 65th anniversary!!
65 years!!
it doesn't get much better than that!

never too late

i love that there are no rules to blogging...if i want to finally post a little bit of our christmas cheer, i can.

  

i blog for many different reasons...

a creative outlet, 

somewhere to put the thousands and thousands of pictures that i take,

but most of all because i want to be the memory keeper of our lives.

i skipped out on blogging during most of our christmas season so that i could enjoy our crazy busy time a little more.  

ella had three weeks off of school and we filled pretty much every hour of every day.

there were probably way too many late late nights but we had a whole lot of fun.

here are a few pics from our christmas day.

christmas morning

 vintage comic books

christmas evening

oh so many presents...

playing the ornament hunt game...we lost...i think we had the worst time

next year, guys, watch out...

it was a good day!