Green and Jeans In Action

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Thank you so much for the book, Aunt Claire!!!

I can't wait for Daddy to read it to me tonight!

Free Time

I have zero free time now, but in the weeks before Baby Girl was born, I had a lot of it.... in which free time = time I should be working but cannot because I was Too Excited For Labor & Delivery To Focus On Work.

I spent most of that free time looking up baby stuff on the internets, and during one random afternoon I landed on the most perfect grandparent Christmas gift ever:

The Kodak Pulse digital frame.

It's a regular digital frame on steroids. You know how with a regular digital frame you have to keep uploading new photos to the memory stick? And how that is basically the most annoying thing ever, so you continue to look at outdated photos because you really just can't be bothered? Or, because the frame was given to you as a gift and you don't know how to keep uploading new pics?

Yeah. The Kodak Pulse has wifi, so it connects to your internet.... and has it's own email address... so photos can be wirelessly emailed directly to the frame. Or, you can just upload them to your account (on the Kodak site) and they automatically get sent to the frame. Genius.

Baby Girl's grandparents live 3 hours from us and they are always dying for new pictures (babies grow fast & I am having a slight panic attack re: this fact). This frame makes it soooooooo easy, it's not even right.

Every few days I transfer pictures from my camera to the computer. Then I can upload whichever photos I want directly to the Kodak Pulse website (through my account, which is linked to the frames) and 10 minutes later the photos show up on the frame. And then new pics of Baby Girl's smiling face are right there, waiting to greet you when you get home.... with no need to turn on the computer.

Best grandparent Christmas gift ever. Hands down.

PS - I wasn't paid/asked/told to write this.... I just love the frame that much. But if you work for Kodak and want to send me one for free, I would love one.

Baby's First Christmas

Know what is more awesome than getting presents at Christmas?

Picking out presents for your (7 week old and will have no recollection of this) baby and writing "Santa" on the tags in different handwriting so it looks like said presents did not come from you and did indeed come from a fat man who broke into your house in the middle of the night. It is totally awesome and I can't wait to open up presents with her!!!

My favorite gift is the Land's End tote, monogrammed with her initials. Every southern girl needs one, and seeing as I have 3, I figure it's never too early to have one. It'll come in handy when we make weekend trips to see the grandparents and she needs too much stuff for just a diaper bag!

Not her initials, but we did get it in gold.

While I do love the tote (and I love seeing her initials on it), I'm guessing her favorite gift is going to be the activity mat.

We went with the Tiny Love Super Deluxe Gymini because it has extra holes in the arches to add toys. Lots of reviews on other activity mats mentioned how nice it would be to be able to move the hanging toys or add some to change it up, so I found one that had that feature. Yey for research.

And yey for personalized books... I got this one and I'm in love with it. Santa is also bringing some Baby Einstein cd's for the car. I am so excited for Christmas!!!

It's almost time..

We did newborn photos on Sunday and should have the disc by the end of the week... then I can finally order birth announcements! And once those are in the mail...

I can start thinking about Christmas cards!!!!

Who doesn't love getting photos of happy, smiling faces in their mail? And photo cards are way more fun to display... we use a french bulletin board to hang the cards we get and it's like a wall of warm wishes. Yey for Christmas.

I have been perusing Shutterfly's new 2010 holiday cards and here are a few of my top pics:

Simply Joy

Berry Merry

Frosty Friends

They have a ton of Christmas photo cards, Christmas invitations, and holiday gift tags.... it's basically a one stop shop for all your holiday photo needs :-) I probably won't order mine until the last second so I can use the most recent photos of Baby Girl possible... that just means lots of time to decide on our cards! I loooove the ones with big spaces for photos, but I'm undecided on one big pic or a few smaller ones. Hmmmmm...

Oh, and! Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly.... http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Mother's Day

My very first Mother's Day... with a 14w2d bun in the oven :-) Here's the photographic evidence, taken on Friday at 14 weeks:

FYI - it is hard to take self-portraits in a bathroom mirror when not looking directly into the view finder!

Anyway, I had a wonderful Mother's Day. Ryan picked out the sweetest gifts:

A baby carriage charm for my Pandora bracelet and a baby name book!

We are stuck on names, so this is going to come in handy! Otherwise, we spent the day laying around with our pup. Ryan had to go into work for a bit, but he got out early so we went out exploring. We hit up an upscale consignment shop just to check out the goods, and then I mentioned wanting to see Babies, (how fitting for Mother's Day, right?) so we headed to the movies to see what time it was playing. Sadly, our theater wasn't playing it, so we ended up seeing Date Night (with Steve Carell and Tina Fey) instead. I really, really wanted to see Babies, but Date Night was a good second choice. It was super funny; we were laughing the whole time.

And this time next year, I'll have a 6 month old baby - a real, live, half-a-year-old baby! That thought makes me so happy that my heart hurts... I can't wait to meet this little one. This little, tiny, lemon-size baby that consumes 90% of my daily thoughts. This little baby that has already made me a mother, and -even better - has made my wonderful husband a father.

We have so much to do in the next 25.5 weeks, and we need every second of that time.... but I cannot wait 'till November.

Happy Easter

My mom and I dyed Easter Eggs last night, but I forgot to get a good picture of all of them before they got turned into egg salad this morning. Here's two of the remaining survivors:Tulips are my favorite flower ever and my mom helped me pick these out for our Easter dinner table. I love the color so much that I took them outside for a photo shoot in good lighting:

Are they not the prettiest flowers you've ever seen?? Happy Easter, everyone!

Sending my love via the intranets.

Happy Valentine's Day!

After 14 full days snowed in with my husband and dog, I can honestly say there's no place I'd rather be.... shoot, I could be snowed in forever with these two:


Are they not the cutest? I know. And while we're here, I also want to send some Valentine's Day love to my sister and brother (at left and second to left):
And to my mom and little sister (& Adam, not pictured):

Ryan and I love you guys and hope you visit soon!

I also wanted to send lots of Valentine's Day love to some folks who may not want their faces plastered all over my blog for all of the internets to see: my Southern Auntie & Uncle, our fabulous bridal party, my BFF & her family, my in-laws, and all of our awesome friends! Oh, and Marley sends her love to Lola. Smooches from our house to yours <3

Wishing everyone a love-filled Valentine's Day!

It only fell 2x before we figured out the stand.

WOOOOO HOOOOOO it's Christmas time at our house! We went out the Sunday after Thanksgiving (so technically our tree was up in November) and got this little guy from Lowe's (because we're classy like that). We put on some Christmas music, pulled out our ornaments, and decorated all night. I bought this star at Target in 2006, and I just love it (with all of it's rustic-ness):

When we first moved to Baltimore, we took a walk through Hampden and found a shop full of crab shells painted like different characters. We picked up a crab shell Yoda:

I got this one in 2005, the first Christmas we had Marley:

Here's one of many Rutgers ornaments on our tree:

I participated in an ornament exchanged hosted by Justine over at Almost There and received these two ornaments from Katie over at Loves of Life:

I just love them! Thanks, Katie!

Each of the ornaments on our tree is special - they were either given to us, or or from our childhood, or purchased because they ment something to us (like the oriole bird I bought for our first Christmas in Baltimore)... I love that even though our tree is just a little bare, it's full of meaning and memories. I try to pick up ornaments every time we travel (I have a little cowboy boot from a trip to Austin and a heavy ball with sombreros from our honeymoon in Mexico) or when I see one that reminds me of something we've done.

Here's a shot of the full tree:

And of course one of Marley with the tree:

And yes, it only tipped over twice before we got it straight in the tree stand :-)

Etsy Love: Give some this holiday season!

My favorite way to waste time is browse Etsy in search of things I didn't know I needed. My newest obsession is the In Touch Clutch by DownstairsDesigns. It's a neat little clutch that keeps notebooks, paper, stamps, business cards, and all that good stuff close at hand and all together in one spot. This one is my favorite (photos taken from DownstairsDesigns):

I've hand my eye on it for awhile now, and seeing it in person this weekend (my sister has one with a yellow pattern) sealed the deal. I don't know if Santa shops on Etsy, but if he does I would be thrilled to death to get this little clutch!

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Looking for a gift for newlyweds or new homeowners? My favorite go-to gift is a simple wood sign like this:

Source

My sisters gave me one at my bridal shower, and I sent one to my BFF as a housewarming gift - every newlywed loves to see their family name up on the wall! There are many sign makers on Etsy, but I went with ThatsMySign and loved the results. They have a few different fonts, colors, and styles so it's easy to customize this gift to the recipient.

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I know I've posted a few of Gussy's sassy ruffled goodness before, but I just can't do an Etsy post and not mention her! Just look at this stuff:

Source

Wouldn't a ruffled pouch make a great gift for your favorite friend? And the accessory pouches are only $18 - perfect for the $20 offce Secret Santa exchange!

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Or how about a hostess gift that goes beyond the standard bottle of wine? I love these little soaps from AJSweetShop:

(Jello Source, Chocolate Source)

Each of these sets are less than $10 each! She's got a ton of different shapes and scents - I ordered a few different ones for my guest bathroom and each one smells amazing. I highly recommend the pumpkin spice!

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So what are your Etsy favorites? I know you got 'em, so share with us!

Black Friday Rocks

We finished up Thanksgiving dinner around 6pm, cleaned down the kitchen, watched "Step Brothers", and then got geared up to hit the mall at midnight to kick off Black Friday.

That's right folks. I was at the mall (with my mom and sister) at midnight. We shopped there till about 4:30am, drove to a second mall, shopped there from about 5am till 8:30am, and then came home and went immediately to bed. In the day light. It was unreal.

I did, however, score some amazing deals! The Banana Rebublic Outlet was basically giving things away. Everything was marked 50% off the lowest ticketed price. This means I got $16 boxers for my husband for either $1.99 or $4.99 (depending on the print) - I got half a dozen pairs! I also totally scored a New Years Eve dress. It's navy blue, satin, strapless, and was marked down to $109.99.... and then was 50% off. I got it for $54.99 and I am thrilled to death.

I'm not usually one for Bath and Body Works, but I do love their candles and the Wallflower plus-ins. I had a coupon for a free item (up to $13.50) with any $10 purchase AND a coupon for $10 off any $30 purchase, so I was able to stock up on Wallflower refills and candles.
The ad: My loot at full price:
2 big candles (3 wick, 14.5 oz) - $19.50 each
1 smaller candle - $9.50
4 Wallflower refills - $12.50 each

Regular Day Total Price: $98.50
Black Friday Price: $30
How: Candles were 2 for $20, Wallflowers were $5 each and I had a coupon for a free item ($9.50 candle). That comes to $40. Then I had the coupon for $10 off any $30 purchase. $40-$10 = $30. I saved $68.50. Score.

The other store I totally rocked was Old Navy. My husband was in desperate need of new clothes and I got an amazing deal. Here's the ad:
My loot at full price:
Grey polo - $15
Long-sleeve henley - $16.50
Crew neck sweater - $16.50
Boxers - $8.50
Crew neck tee's (2 pack) - $10
Jeans - $29.50

Regular Day Total Price: $96
Black Friday Price: $53.95
How: Everything in the store was marked down! The ad pretty much outlines everything for you.

I am pretty thrilled with my Black Friday purchases - I hate doing actual gift shopping on BF because it's way too stressful to navigate crowds and decide if the recipient will like it or if I'm buying it because it's on sale, but I can totally shop for myself. I feel way less guilty about splurging on myself if I know I'm getting an amazing deal.

Now I need to get to my Christmas shopping list.... anyone else get any great deals yesterday?

Turkey + Stuffing = Delicious

It's T-33 hours till my 20lb bird goes in the oven. In the mean time, care to hear about the fancy Thanksgiving I have planned?

The Bird: My first time cooking Thanksgiving turkey was in 2005. It was just me, the boy, our puppy, and a table full of Thanksgiving food. We sat down to eat, thrilled to death with the meal we had just made, and I burst into tears because we had a 14lb turkey (plus all of the trimmings) and no one to share it with (well, except each other). Even thinking about it now makes me tear up. Anywho, I have no idea where I got the recipe, but here's what we do:

Get a turkey. Mine's 20 lbs. Gather up an onion, 2 lemons, a bunch of fresh rosemary (has to be fresh - I know it's more expensive, but just trust me), and some whole garlic (not the minced stuff in the jar, unless you have that on hand to eat while cooking the bird; what, I like it). Dig out the giblets and all that good (terrible) stuff. Rinse the turkey in cold water and pat it dry. Yum. Cut the onion and one lemon into quarters and jam it all into the turkey (hopefully you introduced yourself to the bird prior to all of this). Take about half of the rosemary and do the same. Feel free to throw in as much garlic as you want. Now, slice up the lemon. Use your finger to seperate the turkey's skin from it's muscles. Slice the sliced lemons in those pockets. Then, melt a stick of butter (I use salted) and pull the rosemary leaves off of the stems and deposit that into the melted butter. Brush the whole turkey with the rosemary butter. Toss it in the oven at 325 (degrees F) until a thermometer in the thigh reads 180 degrees F. I promise it will be delish.

The Stuffing: It involves sausage, cranberries, and a host of other deliciousness. It's a secret family recipe. Sorry, folks.

The Potatos: We go both ways at my house - white mashed and whole sweet. Don't tell my husband, but this year I'm making the mashed potatos just the way he likes them - completely whipped (normally I used a hand masher because I love lumps). I'm going to throw in some garlic (the minced kind in the jar), butter, milk, and a little bit of salt. Again, it's going to be delish. As for the sweet potatos, we're going to go a little non-traditional and cut them up into seasoned sweet potato fries.

The Gravy: It comes in a glass jar with a green label that says Fat Free Turkey Gravy. Do not judge me.

The Cranberry Sauce: I heart Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce. The kind that comes out of the can whole, complete with ridges. I love to put a huge spoonful in my mouth and sort of suck it between my teeth, just like Jell-O. For the adults at the table, my mom will be preparing whole-berry cranberry sauce. Boo to that.

The Veggie: Roasted asparagus with garlic (notice a trend?) and turkey bacon (because turkey and sausage stuffing is just not enough meat).

The Bread: Corn bread muffins and dinner rolls. We wanted to make sure there were enough carbs to go around.

The Dessert: Vanilla ice cream and pumpkin pie. Thanks, Mom :-)

The After Dinner Drink: I bought a heinously expensive bottle of pumpkin spice syrup from Williams-Sonoma. I have a Tassimo coffee maker that does lattes (2 minutes from flipping the machine on to scalding your mouth with delicious foamed milk). See where this is going? I can't wait to try the syrup!

So that's my menu. Delicious, to-the-point Thanksgiving Goodness. And I get to use my fancy turkey roasting pan. Anyone else making a full dinner? What's your timeline? I'm always bad at making sure everything is done at the same time.

Thanksgiving Menu?

Ryan and I have hijacked Thanksgiving and made it our holiday, which means we make our loved ones travel down here for a change! We've done it the last 2 years, and I'm pretty good at making the whole meal. This year I'm looking for a new dish or maybe a twist on a classic. I'm set on the turkey and stuffing (family recipes!).... what else do you ladies make? Any fun twists on mashed potatos or the ever so popular green bean heart attack in a baking dish?

Leave me a recipe in the comments!