May 2010 Blog

Happy May!

We've been busy decorating our nursery and getting it ready the baby.  We are doing an animal themed nursery with animal alphabet cards, hung on the wall.  Yes, we are aware that we don't have the alphabet cards in the correct order.  We don't have room for the entire alphabet on the wall, and the baby isn't quite ready to be worrying about order anyways!


Besides still working on some physical things in the baby's room we are really ready for her to come at anytime.  We tell her this everyday, but she hasn't decided to maker her journey yet. 

 My mom, Patsy, made a beautiful crib skirt out of this fabric by Alexander Henry called "Juicy Jungle".  Luke's mom, Holly, and I are working on a valance for the window.  We are appliqueing some of the animals from the fabric onto the valance.  I'm really excited about my adventures in sewing.  It has something I've been afraid to try since middle school because of the precision involved.  But I'm relearning the whole process, and I'm excited about all the craft options.  Baby's aren't too fussy about straight stitches,  so this is a good place to start!

Does it mean you all ready for a baby when you can diaper a duck blindfolded?  At a recent baby shower this was a skill I found myself capable of!

Salad Dressing Recipe
An easy but healthy meal Luke and I like to make is taco salad.  It is easy to improvise with what we have on hand, or ingredients we desire at the time.  But we never knew what dressing to use.  Some restaurants offer a creamy dressing on taco salad, but we wanted to steer clear of that direction.  We usually end up using more salsa than we need to just to make our salad "wet".  We tried this dressing the last couple times we had taco salad, and felt like it really helped balance our salads.  It is subtle and provided that "wetness" we desired.

Taco Salad Dressing
6 servings

Ingredients
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons lime juice (1 lime)
cumin to taste

Mix ingredients and serve over taco salad.  Extra will keep in the fridge.

Click Here For Printable Recipe


A Sweet Love Story

I recently watched "The Young Victoria" and I highly recommend it.  I knew nothing of Queen Victoria's early years as Queen, and so I found the history really interesting.  At the same time it is an extremely endearing and sweet love story.  If you enjoy period pieces and simple and sweet stories, then please see it, you will enjoy it.


Board Game

Recently I have been learning how to play Alhambra, a strategy game that my friends Matt and Betsy own. (well technically Betsy gave it to her dad for Christmas but has then has been borrowing it back!)


Some nice things about this game is that it is a strategy game, but it is not very complex to learn.  Basically you are buying and building rooms. But how you get your money, what you buy and how you build, that is what the game comes down to.    Another nice feature is that you can play it as a two player game.  Luke and I are always looking for good two player games.   But we've also played with 6 people and had fun (like any strategy game with a lot of people, everyone has to be committed to the game).  Let me know what you think of it if you try it out.


I Won Something!

With my new adventures in sewing, I have been looking at sewing blogs and websites.  The website Sew Mama Sew had a give away day with people from other blogs coming together and giving away items.  And I won this fabulous camera strap from VMJess.  Check out her Etsy shop if you are interested in a cute camera strap.  She uses lots of fun fabrics.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/vmjess