top 10 [new] favorite recipes

My husband describes it as some sort of mid-life crisis. I say my new found love for cooking/baking is because after a year and a half, my husband is home seven nights a week rather than three. I actually have someone to cook for!

I've been making new recipes almost every night, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites, in no particular order:



(sorry for the photo quality, some are mobile photos)

1. Chili Lime Chicken Tostadas

2. Best Basic Brownie

(just a tip on these, don't put M&Ms in them if you want them to look pretty. trust me.)

3. Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta

4. Pasta with Tomato-Bleu Cheese Sauce

hey, I never said these were healthy recipes



5. Granny's Chocolate Cobbler



6. Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

7. Crockpot Lasagna

8. The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

9. Zesty Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken

And for #10...

With all this recipe searching I knew it was a perfect excuse to find a spiffy new method for organizing them. My little box just wasn't cutting it. My new Cath Kidston Recipe Organizer arrived in the mail today! Here are a few peeks at the inside...

i'm in a book!

I was delighted when Charlotte Rivers from Roto Vision in the UK asked me to be included in the book, Reinventing Letterpress. It's a book that features numerous letterpress companies as well as general information about the letterpress printing process.

You can purchase the UK version here. Or, you can pre-order the US version, to be released by Chronicle books under the name Little Book of Letterpress. Here are a few pictures of the book:

birthday party planning

Hailey's 4th birthday is next week and we're having a mermaid party this Saturday to celebrate. I LOVE planning parties for the kids. I'll take plenty of photos to show you next week, but thought I'd show you a little bit of my inspiration so far...



Rainbow Cake: This cake has been on a ton of blogs, but after I saw it on Martha Stewart I knew Hailey would love it. I've been telling her for a few months that I'm making her a special surprise cake...so let's hope it turns out like the picture!

Lanterns and Streamers: we'll see how this turns out, I have streamers and a friend is making some poms rather than lanterns. (if this is your photo, please let me know, I couldn't find it again to source it!)

Aqua and Hot Pink: I'm wishing I found this photo a few weeks ago, these are the colors I'm going for and am using this banner as inspiration.

Sprinkler, water balloons and fishing over the curtain game: activities for the party, if it doesn't rain (fingers crossed)

Fish bowl centerpiece: these are cute...just not sure the kids will leave them alone :)

top ten tuesday: 10 things I want to accomplish by the end of summer

The Fourth of July has come and gone, school is almost visible on the calendar and Target is stocking their shelves with backpacks...summer is dwindling by the day! I had big plans for myself at the beginning of June and I gotta say, I'm not doing so hot. So, I decided to participate in Top Ten Tuesday to get myself together, let's get to it:



10 Things to Accomplish by the End of Summer:

1. Finish the Couch 2 5K program. I'm on Week 1 and if I stick to the plan, I'll be finished by mid-September.

2. In combination with #1: Convince someone to run/travel to the Wine & Dine 5K weekend in Disney World. I find it only fitting that my first 5K should be somewhere magical, don't you?

3. Finish cleaning out and organizing our basement. We started off strong with a garage sale in May, now time to organize the things we actually want to keep.

4. Plan my daughters 4th birthday party at the end of July. Invitations have been sent, now its time for the fun part!

5. Print Pictures! I have thousands that need to be sorted, printed and put into albums.

6. Paint my son's room (don't tell my husband). He did a lovely job painting the nursery orange..but that was before we knew he was a boy, and now, I really want a new color.

7. Cook! I've been on a roll this summer with learning to cook new dishes. I've been obsessed with the Pioneer Woman's recipes and have enjoyed trying them out on the fam.

8. Spend more time goofing off with the kids. I've limited my work load this summer so that I can spend more time with the kids...its going well so far, but I need to be more strict with my schedule.

9. Figure out what to do with my daughter's preschool art projects...they're everywhere and I have no clue what to do with them!

10. Finish the bathroom! It's painted and the shower curtain is set, I have a couple accessories, but need a few more to complete the look.

Just making that list has made me want to print recipes and plan birthday details!

What do you want to accomplish this summer?

Grab a funnel cake and get comfy!

As a designer of stationery I often have leftover envelopes, paper and other supplies from projects. Lucky Star Press has joined up with other stationery designers for a Paper Carnival! We've cleaned our surplus of supplies and stocked our Etsy Supply Shops with paper goodies!

You can follow the carnival from location (blog/facebook) to location, every day for the next couple weeks. Watch for the hashtag #papercarnival on twitter to keep up to date and find out where the carnival is headed next! You can also follow the carnival on Facebook.

The Lucky Star Press Supply Shop is a great place for DIY invitations...we're stocked full of pretty little envelopes in a variety of colors. We also have these great Kraft boxes that hold 20 or so sets of A2 cards and envelopes. Great for gift giving or packing up orders.


After you visit our shop, make sure to follow the carnival to it's next pit stop, Parts and Parcels Supply Shop from the amazingly talented Carey at Lasso'd Moon Designs.

Aren't these the perfect format for a wedding program or menu? The ribbon isn't included, so you could customize to match your event.

Follow the carnial tomorrow on Carey's blog, Under the Moon. Happy shopping!

work trumps blog

One of the people I follow on twitter posted this morning, "work trumps blog again." I'm sure this is no surprise here, that is often the case with my blog as well. Although my posts may be few and far between...I do like keeping it up when the time presents itself. Right now for instance.

It's been a long few days with a sick little boy. My daughter and I almost never get fevers...so really, that's what I'm used to. Shouldn't everyone be like us? My little man was topping out at 104.2 this weekend. That's a little high for my taste. He's finally feeling better this morning and I am finally feeling like I can get back to normal. You know, sleeping past 4am, doing things around the house without a one year old attached to my hip...you know, things like that.

Summer has been underway for a couple weeks now. I was planning to take some Mom time during the week, and work a little less. So far, summer has been crazy, so hopefully we'll get into a new routine soon. Here's Hailey and I at her Lunch for Moms at the end of preschool.



Hailey had a great week last week at Dance Camp. She has been asking to "do dance" for a while. We decided to try out a week-long summer camp, with her friend Josie, to see if she liked it, before investing in all the shoes, leotards and froofy outfits. Here are a few photos from her end of the week performance, it was adorable! (side note: both Hailey and Josie are wearing their mother's ballet shoes)





In other news, Hailey finally got a bike! She has been riding a tiny tricycle for a while. We were going to get it for her birthday, but decided the end of summer would be kind of silly. Its going to take a bit of practice, but she's getting the hang of it.



Happy Monday all!

its that time again...

My baby girl turns 4 next month so it's time to start thinking about her party...her little mermaid party that is. Per her request she wants a Little Mermaid Party...which I am translating to a non-cheesy Mermaid Party. I just can't bring myself to plaster the Disney image everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I love Disney...but I think Hailey deserves to be her own mermaid, don't you?

Here's what I've found so far...

For my kid's parties I feel pressured to create fabulous invites. But I found these adorable invites that can be customized to look like your child...they might be too cute to pass up.

photos by olligraphic on etsy

And because we're still in the fantasy stage of the party planning...wouldn't these personalized plates be fabulous party favors? (over my husband's dead body)

little cupcakes company

And mermaid tails for the guests...these are a must...

Living Locruto's beautiful Mermaid Party!