Happy Mother's Day!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful day!  I got to wake up (at 8 am!) to fresh brewed coffee, a chocolate chip filled chocolate icing doughnut and...

my son on a motorcycle!  I hope this is the ONLY time he's on a motorcycle!  Hope everyone had a Mother's Day filled with all of your favorite things!

At least he's wearing a helmet!
Andrea

Singer Sew Party Show and Tell

Hello!

Happy Saturday!  I've had a great day today, a great start to the Mother's Day Weekend!  My Singer Sew party was this morning, we had quiche, monkey bread, fruit, raspberry bars, wine, coffee... and sewing!  Can it get any better?!  I had a great turn out, we had 11 people come over and make the tool roll projects!  Here's some pictures:

We had 3 machines set up so that we could keep the party moving.  Here's my Mom, Rosa and Jena sewing away - the Singer Confidence worked awesome!  In the dinning room we had the precut 12x14 inch rectangles ready to be pinned and an ironing station.  Of course, no station was too far from the food!

Here, Christine and Amber were making their pockets for the tool roll while my Mother-in-law ironed her seams.

Here's my Grandma Grace turning her corners out.

There's not much better than getting together to make a fun, easy and time conscientious project!  And now it's time for a nap and then onto an Angel's Game!

Hope everyone's Mother's Day is wonderful!
Andrea



Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Hello out there!

Is everyone happy that it's Cinco de Mayo?  I am, it's kind of a big deal in our house... yes, I know it's not really Mexican Independence Day like most probably assume, but being of a Mexican-American  mix, I love any day that celebrates that half of me!  And what better way to celebrate than with food!  Yum!  Try this recipe - it's a fiesta in your mouth! 

Chocolate Banana Empanadas - courtesy of FoodNetwork

Ingredients


4 large ripe bananas

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 recipe empanada dough, recipe follows

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, broken in chunks

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Directions

Mash the bananas, sugar, and cinnamon together in a mixing bowl until creamy, but not completely smooth – you should still have pieces of banana chunks. Spoon a generous tablespoon of the banana filling on the empanada pastry circles and stick a piece of chocolate on top. Form and bake the empanadas as directed in the recipe. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve hot.

(I use premade pie-dough in a pinch, but here's the recipe for homemade dough!)





Empanada Dough:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour



1 cup masa harina



1 teaspoon baking powder



1 teaspoon salt



1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled



1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash



Butter, for greasing the pans



In a large bowl, sift together the flour, masa harina, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the melted butter. Gradually add 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of water, working it in with your hands to incorporate; the dough should be easy to handle and not sticky. Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic, and chill for 30 minutes.



Lightly flour your rolling pin and counter. Divide the dough in 1/2 so it will be easier to work with and roll it out to 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 4-inch cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out 10 circles of dough; repeat with the other 1/2.



Spoon 2 generous tablespoons of filling into the center of each pastry circle, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Brush the edges with the egg wash and then fold the dough over in 1/2 to enclose the filling and form a semi-circle. Tightly seal the edges by crimping with the tines of a fork. Chill at least 30 minutes before baking.



Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place the empanadas on a buttered baking sheet and brush the tops with additional egg wash. Using a fork, prick a few holes in the top of the empanadas for steam to escape. Bake for 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown.

Good Morning

I've been wanting to share a little more about our day to day for the past few months in Adam's scrapbook, so I decided to dissect the day into pictures.  My goal is to share on the blog and then do pages so I can remember the different stages of our life... so much has changed in our daily routine from the time Adam was a newborn to now... it's easy to forget the different shapes of our life.

So, here's our morning (in pictures)... all before 7:30 am...

{my coffee, Adam's green juice, blog hopping}

{Disney Junior - it's my wake-up helper}

{And then we heard the 1st trash truck of the day}

{A little boy, 2 trash trucks - perfection}

{Adam - jammies, Mommy - jammies/robe = TMI for neighborhood}

Like I said, this is before 7:30 - it's a little crazy with a 3 year old, energetic boy!  And we did this routine for all 3 trash trucks, not to mention standing by the front door, looking for the trash truck and Adam tricking me into cleaning his playroom while he watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse...

Hope your morning is spent in your jammies on a trash truck in the front yard too!

Andrea

Singer Sewing Party!

Hello!

Well, we just got back from the hottest, err, happiest place on Earth!  Yes, Disneyland!  It was 95 today, yikes!  See, even in the heat, we're still totally in lurve with Disneyland!  Poor Pluto, tho!  He must've been one hotdoggie!

So, I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I was picked to be a host for a Singer House Party a while back and my party is this Saturday!  Here's the Singer Sewing Confidence machine that I picked up on Saturday - I really really really LOVE it!  It has 62 stitches - and a cutting foot that will double as a serger even tho I don't know how to use it... trial and error, or errors.

And while I was picking up my new sewing machine, I also made the project that we'll be making at the party... a tool roll - so easy and so cute!  I think this is perfect for a plethora of tools... sewing, paper crafting, crayons (I'm thinking of Adam here, not myself)... very easy, it took less than 20 minutes!

{tool roll}

{All rolled up - I'll add ribbon for closures for the party)

And here's a picture of what's going to be in the goodie bags - this was all sent by Singer for the party for FREE!  Super cool!  I love free!  It's my favorite price!

I'll show you guys pictures of the party after Saturday, later this week I'll share some more Silhouette shirts that I made - 1 for my niece and 1 for my BFF's little girl (they were supposed be for Easter... opps). 
See you all later!
Andrea

A few pages to share

Here's a few page layouts that created using a PageMaps pdf from 2010 - these are for my Page's from the Heart Page Map class.  Take a look - I used JilliBean paper with a smidge of WeR - I really like the way these pages came out -

Contact Pages if you'd like to take the class!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Andrea



Too many tidbits about me?

Hello!

I havn't blogged in a while (I kept meaning to, but then I'd have to get my camera, then upload my pictures of projects and, in some instances, take pictures and it just wasn't happening for some reason...) but then I saw this on Trish's blog and thought, "This could be fun..." so here I go.  A lot of randomness

Me and Adam - I was exhausted after this field trip - he was not...

 Food: I love Mexican food, love love love carne asada, pollo asada, tortilla soup, machaca but I also love my Dad's smoked ribs or tri-tip and I LOVE corned beef!  And any kind of chocolate!

Color:  I love pink... I don't really wear that much of it and I seldom get to put it in our house, but I love it... yellow makes me happy, our blue/grey walls make me feel calm, orange makes me pop... I love all colors...  My best friends made fun of me once for wrapping something very "colorfully" - which meant tacky, but now look who deals with color everyday!  Oh, I cannot stand purple!

Animals: We have a ton of fish.  At one point Adam named them Ringo, Paul, Beatles, Echo, Elmo, Mickey, Yumm, and I think (per his Daddy's suggestion) Food.  I don't know which is which, and I bet if we asked Adam today what the fishies names were he'd have a totally different list.  I'm in the process of adopting a desert tortoise... awaiting yard inspection.  Due to allergies, we can't have pets with fur, which is a bummer.

Dessert: As I mentioned before, I LOVE chocolate in any form!  I also love Litehouse Sugar cookies - they're so soft and they always have the best icing:cookie ratio.  Oh, and costco cake!  Yum!  And my grandma's lemon meringue pie - it's amazing and Smore's!

Artists:  I honestly like a wide variety... I like artists from Kanye to Lady Antebellum, Journey (who doesn't?) The Black Eyed Peas, CeeLo - America's Top 40... my nephew asked me why I listen to "his" music... Uhhh, hello?  I'm not that old!

Pair of Shoes:  my new BOB's from sketches - I love them!  They're super comfy and adorable!  Typically I'm a flip flop girl - since it seldom gets super cold here my flip-flops stay out year long!

Outfit:  I like layering... I love dresses, they're just so easy and comfy.  I also wear my gray boyfriend cardi EVERYWHERE!  I should've bought 10 of them because I'm dreading the day it tears...

Skinny Jeans:  Okay, I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I have 1 pair of skinny jeans and 1 pair of jean leggin's - both of which I SWORE I'd never own!  I'm not a tiny girl (far from) and anything with the word "skinny" to describe it isn't something that I'd normally try but I HAD to so I could wear my boots this past winter...

Brand:  Gap, Anthropologie, Banana Republic, Target... Gap fits my body well, Anthro is a dream to have enough $$ to shop there, Banana is for really really really special occasions, Target is a dependable - I know that I can always find something there that'll be cute and not expensive.

Perfume:  I'm allergic, like ubber sensitive, so everything that I wear is sans scent...

Accessory:  my owl earrings or Adam's birthstone necklace that I got from Alan and Adam on my first Christmas as a mommy.  I'm hoping for a Lisa Leonard necklace for Mother's Day...

City:  Redlands, which is about 1 hour from Disneyland, the OC, Big Bear, Palm Springs and about 1.5 hours from Los Angeles - it's perfect to raise a family, small but close to everything big!

Hobbies:  Crafting, sewing, reading, blog hopping and, lately, antique shopping

Beauty Products:  Clinique face soap, make-up and Bumble & Bumble hair products - it's a splurge but soo worth it!

Holiday:  Christmas, then Halloween, then Valentines...

Snack:  lately, yogurt covered raisins, but typically a "trail mix" called Indulgence (real healthy) or cheese-itz or candy/cookies - whatever is least healthy is what I gravitate towards

Movie: Elf, Love Actually, El Mariachi, Motorcycle Diaries, Funny Girl, Sense and Sensability... again, it's a wide range.  I love chick-flicks, but I love certain action movies and Motorcycle Diaries is a feast for your eyes, it's beautiful and you forget that it's in subtitles.

Song:  My Life - The Beatles and John Coltrane's C Minor

Guilty Pleasure:  Watching horrible reality television (Bravo, anyone?) and eating lunch while Adam's napping... I know that I should be working but smut is always calling me!

Seven things you may or may not know about me:

1.  I am still best friends with most of my BFF's from Elementary and Junior High School.

2.  I married my high school sweetheart, just not for 8 years after high school :)

3.  I have a degree in English: Creative Writing, emphasis: Non-fiction.  Yah - it's super useful.

4.  I wanted to go into editing or publishing and spend my whole days reading books.

5.  I used to HATE peanut butter - now I don't know what I was thinking - Reese's PB Cups are probably my 2nd favorite candy - Cadburry Bars are my first.

6.  I cannot stand clowns.  I think they're creepy and don't understand the need for them to exist.

7.  I will never move, I am very close to my family and cannot imagine a life where they were not a daily/weekly part of it - I live within 20 minutes of the most important people in my life (except my sister and Jenny)

8.  I think that I could've been the first female pro baseball player.  My father and pretty much everyone who knows me, disagrees, BUT, I'm convinced.  

9.  My son was the best, most honest miracle that has ever happened in my life.   

10.  I want to someday be like Martha Stewart (only without the jail time) OR Tim Holtz or Heidi Swapp - I would love to turn my passion into a full-fledged business.  People would say "Oh, who's paper is that?"  and someone would respond, "It's Andrea". 

Okay, that's all for me!  If you feel like this was a fun little something, do the same thing on your blog and send me the link - it'd be fun to get to know all the little things that make each other up!  So much more interesting than the normal stats!

Andrea