The Best Birthday Gift EVER

Tonight, my sister gave me my belated birthday present.... house shoes from Holland! They are shaped like wooden shoes! After we left Amsterdam this summer, I told Megan that I wished I had bought some house shoes shaped like those cute wooden shoes that we saw everywhere. Well, that sweet thing remembered me saying that, and got these for me! I absolutely love love love them! Thanks Megan!

Weekend in Columbus, Indiana

This past weekend Scott and I were asked to dinner by one of his friends from high school. Greg and his wife Donna live about an hour north of us in Columbus, IN. Coincidentally, just 10 minutes from them live some of our other friends, Jake and Danielle, so we decided to stay the weekend in Columbus and visit with both couples.

When I first walked into Greg and Donna's house, this is the first sight that caught my eye:

Homemade pasta! OMG! This is a beautiful sight to any self proclaimed "foodie". I knew right then and there that the night was going to be fabulous! As it turns out, Donna used to work as a pastry chef, so the menu for the night was full of wonderful, homemade treats!

For an appetizer, she had made us Spanakopita, which is a type of Greek pastry, filled with spinach and feta cheese. The delicate philo dough pastry was flaky and perfect, and the spinach and feta mixture inside was fluffy and creamy. I have never had a better Spanakopita in my life!

For dinner, she cooked the fresh pasta, and topped it with a delicious tomato sauce.

The pasta was light and chewy, and the sauce had a tomatoey richness that just perfectly coated the noodles. Greg helped too- he grilled some marinated steak pieces to a perfect medium rare and we had that as a side to the spaghetti, along with an antipasto plate. Talk about a fabulous meal! And as if that wasn't enough, Donna also made individual creme brulee's for each of us.

Needless to say, we were completely spoiled by this fabulous food, and had a wonderful time visiting with them. Thanks Greg and Donna, you guys are awesome!

After the fantastic meal and several glasses of wine enjoyed by the beautiful fire in their living room, we said goodbye to the happy couple and went over to Jake and Danielle's. We went to bed when we got there, but were awakened by the pitter patter of little feet running-running-running all over the house!

It's 7am on Saturday! Time to wake up and play with me!

Who could be mad at this sweet face? Of course we were glad to wake up and play with little 2 year old Zachary. He is the cutest, sweetest thing! We enjoyed the few hours we got to spend with him. Here is the happy family:

Jake, Vincent (6 months old- he's a big boy!), Zachary, and Danielle....what a beautiful family!

We played with the kids for a couple of hours, then the baby sitter came at 10 am. We left to Zachary excitedly saying "bye! bye! bye! bye!" (waving bye-bye the whole time), jumped in the car, and took a road trip up to Bloomington, Indiana.

We had reservations for brunch at a local place called "The Farm". We had been there for dinner once before, and had high expectations for brunch. We were not disappointed! This restaurant relies on local, seasonal produce for a major portion of their menu, and it is TO DIE FOR!!!

Check out our breakfast:

Homemade shoestring fries with fresh garlic, parsley, chili flakes, and a hollandaise dipping sauce. This was Heaven On A Plate!

Jake and I both had the Short Rib Stuffed Omelet with potatoes and fresh parsley. MMMMM!!

Danielle had the Bacon, Egg, and Spinach Pizza:

This ranked right up there with one of the best pizzas any of us have ever eaten. There was a wood fired oven in the restaurant, so the pizza was thin, chewy, and perfectly cooked, with 2 poached eggs on top. It was amazing.

Scott had an awesome plate as well.. fried duck eggs with crispy french toast and sweet potato mash. Yum-O!

After our unbelievably delicious brunch, we got back in the car and drove ten minutes up the road to our destination: Oliver Winery. It was a rare day in November, warm and sunny... 70 degrees! We enjoyed an outdoor wine tasting, and then sat down with a bottle of wine and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine.

Scott and I at the Winery, or "Mini-Stone Henge" as we called it.

Jake and Danielle... what a cute couple!

We ate some Cabriolle Goat Cheese that came wrapped in whiskey soaked chestnut leaves... it was devine!

We all had a great day at the winery. Miss you guys already- hope to see you again soon!

Thanksgiving Tree

I just can't get enough of Christmas. The month of December is never long enough; it seems as if after all the numerous hours it takes to get all my Christmas decorations out and displayed, it's time to put them all away for another year. So this year, I decided to start early.

I bought a skinny, 7 ft pre-lit tree this weekend and went ahead and put it up in my kitchen. I am going to decorate it with a "cooking" theme for Christmas- with a chef's hat as a tree topper, wooden spoons, cookie cutters, little Gingerbread men and candy canes. But for now, as it is only just the first of November, I decided to make it a Thanksgiving Tree..... for just another week. After say, November 15th, it's full on Christmas. Goodbye fall leaves and pumpkin decorations, hello snowmen and Christmas Village. Oh yes, there are more little houses coming, get ready.

Merry Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble!

My Halloween Village

This is in my Halloween room. Yes, I have a Halloween room. I know, I have way too much time on my hands.

Happy Halloween!

A Blessed Life

Sometimes it's just the simple things in life that make me stop and realize how blessed I am. A beautiful fire in the fireplace of my living room. My sweet, amazing husband by my side. Knowing that I have a wonderful family that I love and can share my life with. Loyal friends that I can count on at any time.

The Pillow Show

I have a confession to make: I have an obsession with pillows. I prefer to sleep with 3 pillows, but I can make do with 2 if I must. If I'm spending the night somewhere and I don't have 2 pillows, I will roll up whatever clothing I was wearing that day and use it in place of the missing pillow. I absolutely cannot stand to have my knees touching while I sleep, so not having a substitute

pillow is not an option.

I know I have issues, but I'm willing to accept them and move on.

This strange obsession flows over to the part of my brain that loves to decorate. On each bedroom of my house, I feel the need to have a "Pillow Show". I realize that this pillow show is really only put on for me to see, but I feel that each bed must have multiple pillows to decorate it. Have you ever seen a bed with just the obligatory 2 pillows, and thought, "that is a beautiful and decorative presentation!" No, of course you haven't! Multiple pillows are essential to achieving this statement. My own personal bed currently has 11 pillows decorating it. And that is after downsizing! I used to have 13! Well, technically I still do have 13, but 2 are hidden and used for actual sleeping on. I realize that taking 11 pillows off the bed each night, and replacing all 11 again each morning is time consuming. It takes approximately 1 minute to remove the pillows at night, and about 2 minutes to replace in the morning (it takes more time to strategically place them in the correct places than it does to take them off the bed, even though after taking them off, I do neatly line them up at the foot of the bed in the same order that they are laid out on the bed). Yes, I already said that I realize I have issues.

So, I spend 3 minutes a day on the pillow procedure. That breaks down to 21 minutes a week, 1092 minutes a year, or 18.2 hours. So, close to 1 day out of my year is devoted to arranging pillows. But in my mind, it is time well spent.

Presenting, The Pillow Show:

My Bedroom Pillow Show

Bedroom #2 Pillow Show

Bedroom #3 Pillow Show

The End.

The Sweetest Husband Ever

Today I was awakened by my sweet husband Scott. I opened my eyes to see him standing next to the bed, holding a tray of breakfast he'd made me! He made his own creation- a poached egg smothered in taco meat, salsa, cheese, and hot sauce, on a piece of toast. I know, it sounds weird, but it was so delicious! It reminded me of Huevos Rancheros, plus meat. He had sliced up a tomato and had it plated next to the toast, with parsley flakes sprinkled on top. He also made coffee, and had poured me a cup in my new pumpkin coffee mug. The tray that he brought the plate up on was a Halloween tray... so adorable! He knows me so well and exactly the things that I like! I have the sweetest husband in the whole world!