Easter Season

Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday which for us Catholics kicks off the Easter Season. I've always loved Easter for many different reasons (religion aside). Let me count the ways....

Decorating eggs and hunting them down in the backyard

Baskets filled with fun treasures and treats

Little girls in dresses and little boys in suits

Wheatgrass centerpieces

Brunch with my family

Saltwater sandals

Making crafts

Cadbury eggs

Seersucker suits

Easter decorations

Chicks and Bunnies

Home made treats

Spring flowers and trees, fresh cut grass, birds chirping...

Spring Scents

While surfing the blogosphere this morning I came across some new perfumes that will surely take me away from the cold, dreary Seattle weather. Reminds me of the old 80's commercial, "Calgon take me away..."

The Brides Guide just posted two new Spring fragrances that sound dreamy.

Cereus Pour Femme No. 12. Apparently it's a blend of peach flower, watermelon, black currant, Brazilian rosewood, and vanilla. Sounds perfect for our Hawaiian vacation this year!

Prada Infusion De Fleur D'Oranger with key notes of orange blossom, tuberose and jasmine. The fragrance is the first in a yearly series of limited edition scents called the Ephemeral Infusion Collection and it launches in March.

Jasmine is my all time favorite scent so I am always on the look out for new fragrances that include jasmine. While on the topic of jasmine I have to give a shout out to my favorite perfume, Hanae Mori Butterfly, includes notes of berries and jasmine. I wore this for my wedding and continue to love this warm and feminine scent.

I've always wanted to be a signature scent kind of girl but there are so many wonderful fragrances out there it would be a shame not to mix it up every once in awhile. I will forever be loyal to any scent that includes jasmine though. Can't wait to try these new ones!

Oscar's Stuffed Peppers

My new obsession is Oscar's stuffed bell peppers. I can't get enough of it! I ask him to make it every week because they are deeelicous!

I typically do the cooking in our household but sometimes Oscar jumps in and every time he does, we end up loving the recipe. I always tell him he should be the family cook because he seems to be a natural but he isn't falling for it!

He found a recipe for stuffed bell peppers on allrecipes.com but it called for chorizo sausage. He modified it with Italian turkey sausage to cut out some of the fat. We typically substitute ground turkey or turkey sausage when recipes call for ground beef or pork sausage. The recipe is so delicious I wanted to share.

Ingredients

• 6 bell peppers, tops cut off and seeded
• 1 pound chorizo sausage (we substituted Italian turkey sausage)
• 1 stalk celery, minced
• 1 carrot, minced
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• chopped fresh parsley
• chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 cup uncooked long grain rice (we substituted organic brown long grain rice)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/3 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/3 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Directions

• Bring a large pot of water to boil. Place peppers in boiling water, and cook 5 minutes. Remove, and set aside to cool.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In a large skillet, cook sausage until almost brown. Drain fat. Stir in celery, carrots, onions, and garlic. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, basil, rice, and water. Cover, and simmer until rice is cooked, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and mix in Monterey Jack, Cheddar, and Mozzarella cheeses.
• Place peppers upright on a baking sheet. Stuff each pepper with the chorizo mixture. Sprinkle extra cheese on top.
• Bake in preheated oven about 30 minutes.

Another modification we made was using cooked brown rice instead of uncooked rice. It was just easier and added extra flavor because we cook our brown rice in chicken broth. Also, we only use reduced fat cheddar cheese instead of all three cheeses the recipe asks for.

The recipe is a little laborious but so worth it in the end and because it calls for 6 peppers we have plenty of left overs for lunch the next day. Another thing we love to do is cook extra for lunch left overs!

If you like bell peppers, you will not be disappointed by this recipe. Enjoy!

Ozzie's 1st Tooth!

Ozzie has been teething since he was 5 months old. His little gums swell up and then go back down and he drools over everything in sight. I had no idea it would take his first tooth that long to cut through.

I have tried a lot of different tricks to help him with the uncomfortableness of his swollen gums (short of overdosing on acetaminophen) but nothing has worked until yesterday.

I read somewhere that frozen celery works really well so I tried it and it worked! Go figure? He loved gnawing at the celery and sucking the water out of it as it melted.

The good news is, his tooth FINALLY cut through! Like most kiddos his bottom front tooth is the first to surface. It's just barely there but I can feel its sharpness when I put my hand in his mouth. I'm hoping now that it has surfaced he will be a little more comfortable and less cranky. I am also hoping not every tooth hurts this much and it's just the uncomfortableness of his first tooth because this was an ordeal to say the least!

Since the tooth has just barely surfaced I don't have any pictures of it yet, not that you could see it, but here are a few pictures of him loving his frozen celery. What a great teething tip!

The only smile I could get out of him

Watching Sesame Street

Sucking the water out as it melts

Hands free!

The magical power of frozen celery!

This Weeks Flickr Find

It's raining outside today but instead of complaining about it, I thought I would celebrate it by looking for rain drop pictures for this week's Flickr find. And I'm glad I did because I wouldn't have found this beauty by Lucy!Chain. She also has this lovely rain picture as well.

I guess if I'm going to live in Seattle, I need to embrace the rain. Beautiful pictures like these help make that a little easier. At least all the rain makes for a beautiful green spring & summer.

Ozzie's First Word!

Exciting news from the house of O! Ozzie said his first word this week on Tuesday and hasn't stopped since. Out of the blue, no coaxing involved, he looks at me and says "mama."

Now I realize that he doesn't know what he's saying and that it's really just baby babble but it's still the sweetest sound I've ever heard in my life! Ever since then he babbles, "ma", "mama" and "mamamamamam". Nothing better!

Then on Wednesday he surprised me with his second word, "baba" or it could be "papa." I've been watching his lips closely to see if he is making the p or b sound but I can't quite tell yet. Ozzie doesn't drink out of a bottle so no one has ever said baba to him. This is my justification that it is papa.

It gets better, he also discovered a new fun noise this week, the puh sound. Ozzie finds this particularly fun when he has a mouth full of pureed baby food or saliva! If you are within spitting distance, beware!

So for those of us counting, Ozzie's official repertoire of sounds are.... drum roll please... mama, papa (or baba), roaring like a lion, blowing the raspberries and the puh sound, aside of course from the boring grunts and groans that are even more babblish than these sounds.

Ah the sweet joy of listening to your little one learn his first words, it really tugs at the heart strings. I was so proud of my little stinker that I had to take a few photos of him after he said, "Mama." Here he is after his doctor appointment and the famous first words!

Still teething and drooling all over his clothes (although no teeth have surfaced yet).

Got his Mariners cap on to celebrate the return of Griffey.

Baseball caps are always cuter backwards.

His just fell and kept on smiling. So I kept clicking away. It's his sexy pose. He's bringing sexy back!

She's Outdone Herself!

My buddy Brooke over at Jackaroo love recently opened an Etsy shop, Little Retreats. And boy has she outdone even herself with one of her most recent paper bird cages.

This ivory beauty is one for the record books!



Check out her attention to the little details on the bottom of the cage. Not to mention the warm shade of ivory, so dreamy. I've always loved birds, birdcages and bird nests so naturally I am in L.O.V.E with this creation!



Brooke is so talented, I log on to her shop frequently to see what she has come up with next. Kudos good buddy! You are a rising star!

Mimosa anyone?

The recent sunny weather reminded me of a post I forgot to add in January. Pantone, the authority on color, named Mimosa as 2009 color of the year.

They are quoted as saying Mimosa is "a warm, engaging yellow which embodies hopefulness and reassurance in a climate of change.” I get it, yellow, a color of hope during these dreary economic times. And the name, mimosa, who doesn't love to wake up to a mimosa while on holiday? Is Pantone trying to divert our attention from the war, a bad economy, global warming, men wearing jeans with back flap pockets?

Although I am not a fan of yellow clothing, I have to admit I was intrigued by some of the mimosa images I found while surfing the web. If Seattle was having our normal rainy weather, I probably couldn't handle this but the sunshine is here and it's beautiful outside so optimism is in the air!

Here are a few mimosa images to brighten your day!

Only a first time mom will understand...

... how exciting it is that my little monkey sat in the big boy seat of the grocery cart for the first time today!! No more schlepping the heavy car seat around and now I can see where I'm going. I only stand at 5' 2" so seeing over the car seat attached to the grocery cart was difficult to say the least.

Ozzie is 6 1/2 months old now and he's such a big boy! I was so excited I took two pictures and emailed his dad at work. Daddy was equally excited at Ozzie's new adventure! Actually I emailed quite a few girly friends too since it's just so much fun to share. My friend Lisa said it best when she said his little world just got a little bigger- so true!

Here's my monkey enjoying the grocery store (or the grocery store parking lot) from a new view.

This Weeks Flickr Find

I had so much fun searching through the photos on Flickr last week when I needed some inspiration and a quick pick me up that I decided to try and add a Flickr favorite photo each week. We'll see how long this lasts...

Here is a beautiful lotus photographed by severina6 as part of her City Plants and Flowers set. Just so beautiful to look at on these cold, grey days.

There are so many talented people posting amazing pictures on Flickr, makes me wish I had that talent. Seems like taking photos of beautiful things would be a wonderful way to pass time. Not to mention instantly gratifying when looking at the great shots you took on your camera.

Hmmmm maybe someday I will add photography to my repertoire.

Decal Monograms

So I love a good monogram and just found Decal Monograms etsy page this morning. What a fun way to personalize anything you can think of!

She also has other great decals like this adorable hearts grass for a little girls room.

I remember the year I got married, I wanted everything to be monogramed with my new initial O. I wish I had found this then!

Fun etsy shop!

This Year's Valentine Favorites

While I was searching the blogosphere tonight, I ran across two posts from two different blogs that I follow and I had to share.

This is definitely my favorite valentine craft this year! I caught this over at Tangle and True but looks like she saw it at Melt. What a fun way to tell your loved ones that there aren't enough words to say how much you love them.

And then because I L.O.V.E. coconut and L.O.V.E cookies, I had to share this from Smitten Kitchen



Yummy and not your typical brownie hearts on Valentines Day!

I heart the blogosphere...

Happy Valentines Day!

I know I will have a busy day tomorrow and may not be able to blog so on this Valentines Day Eve I wish everyone a day full of love and happiness! I'll leave you with my favorite vintage print and some lovely vintage valentine cards.