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Fyndes.com

Because of this, this and this.

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Decorate your face - with powdered sugar

Okay, this is a quick one, to be followed up later with pictorial evidence. so stay tuned.


Recently, I was catching up on a food blog I love, Herbivoracious (please check out Michael's blog, he's a fellow foodie and Seattlite and we swap food info). He posted a great post (with pictures) about what he calls Dutchbabies.


Of course I had to correct him by saying that when we were growing up, we had them on special sundays, but they're called Baby Dutchmen! (duh! although I have to admit, even my Uncle Jeff said he thought they were Dutchbabies. This will make more sense further down the post).


So I told Michael (@ Herbavoracious - keep up!) that I would share with him my recipe, that my mom gave me years ago when I moved out on my own, and that I'd try to make it gluten free. He has a partial gluten free audience, and Paul is gluten free, so I thought "yay! Experient time!!!!"


Well, the road to H#@$ is paved with good intentions, no?


I have not yet made my version, but I did get back to Michael with the recipe, which I will now share with you:



1/3 c. butter - melt in pan (like glass pie plate)
4 eggs
1c. milk
1c. flour

mix eggs in blender for one minute; add milk and flour and blend till mixed.

pour batter into pie pan which has melted butter in it and bake in 425 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.

this batter makes two babies, so split the batter before pouring it into your pan.

My mom's note is that it's my Uncle Jeff's recipe. He's my mom's little brother, who lives in his Eastlake (let-me-drool-all-over-your-perfect-house)home with his FAB girlfriend, my aunt, Lisa.

I had dinner with him this Sunday (perfect BBQ in Seattle Sunday) and he said it's from an old friend of his....so who knows the origin. Isn't that the best anyway?!?!?

------


So you see, all these years we were calling them Baby Dutchmen in our house, when the guy that gave my mom the recipe says he calls them Dutchbabies. So who knows!


It doesn't affect the taste one bit! (or one bite!)


Just for fun, I've scanned in the picture of the paper my mom wrote the recipe on for me, because it's an old stationary pad from her mom, when she used to be a professional secretary back in the day. I just love this pad of paper, and have seen this paper since I could even remember my own name. I think she got like 20 cases of it, because my grandparents are no longer with us (since 2001) and we're STILL using pads of this paper! HA!


Enjoy:

mmmmmmmmmmmm......

Since Seattle has decided to stick with Winter until Summer finally pushes through, I'm sticking with warm tea and comforting blueberry bread this morning. Here you'll see two of my favorite things: a mug from a tea set that Ziggs (my college friend) got me for a birthday a couple years ago, and my tea pot given to me by my dad for Chirstmas this past year. I love them so much.

The mug is the perfect thinness to drink from, and I love watching the tea infuse into the hot water.

What you can't see in this picture is my fabulous hour glass, which is actually a 35 minute glass, but who's counting.....(sorry, bad pun).

That precious find was from Revival Home and Garden, in Georgetown, here in Seattle. (Leah at Revival has become a new design and decor friend of mine, and you can check out her store and blog here: http://www.revivalhomeandgarden.com/)

Plane Jane: who knew?!?!?!

This is a Seattle area specific post, so sorry to those of you to whom this does not apply, but if you ever come to visit, I'll make sure I tell you how to get there.

This past Sunday (Mother's Day of course), Paul and I were at his parent's house for brunch. My mom and her husband also came out for brunch, so we had a 2 mom situation. :)

Paul and I really couldn't figure out what to get either of them, but luckily Mark (Paul's younger brother) had already taken care of a present for their mom, from us kids. Paul and I decided to hit up the local QFC for some flowers at least. So we headed down to the neighborhood shopping plaza, in Klahani (an area of Issaquah, which is a suburb of Seattle).

http://www.planejane.info/

(this picture is old, because of course it's from their website, and what's in stock now is super cute, and I want one of everything!)

As we are pulling up (mind you I've been to this grocery store many times over the past 4 years) I noticed a cute little store just to the left, called Plane Jane. It's front doors were open, and I thought, "hmmmmm, I don't remember seeing that place before, I wonder if it's new?" and then I realized they had all sorts of cute clothes and accessories inside. So I said, "honey, let's pop in here real quick, just to see if they have anything."

I was very cautious to get anything, because my mom is basically the queen of jewelry and has everything and more that she could ever possibly wear. (I think if she wore a different piece every day, she could go almost a year without skipping a beat).

But as soon as I walked in, I saw this great gold chain necklace that SCREAMED my mom's name (for those of you who know her, and are my college girlfriends, you know her as the Naaaan-DA, or "the Nons").

So for $50.00 plus tax, we got her this really cute, long necklace that she says she can already wear a few different ways! sweet! (and it's cute, so I can totes borrow it!)

The owner, Naoko Vaughn, is really nice, and we liked what we saw, although we were on the run, so I really have to go back and explore more! Plus, it's next door to a coffee shop, and a nail salon and a spa, so this is the makings of a great girls trip! Woo hoo!

Follow Up: I think I can, I think I can

Hey there,

So, I have a couple of pictures, but........................they're not the best. One is fuzzy, and neither really shows the hat. So sorry, but maybe there'll be another opportunity to wear it, or maybe I'll get annoyed enough and retake the pictures later.

Either way, here's how it sat on my head (PS: my hair didn't go so well, but them's the breaks)

I like 'em thin!

My coffee cups, not my men!

I am sitting here drinking room temp tea (just the way I like it) out of this coffee mug from Target (it's white, plain, but I like it). However the thickness of the mug is so thick that sometimes I end up spilling or dribbling! YUCK! (not the way I like it!)

I find that women prefer thinner edges and men prefer thicker edges.....at least in my non-scientific sample which consists of me, Paul (the BF), my sister, her husband, my mom and her husband, and my dad.

What do you think? Thin, thick, or just don't care, skip the mug and hit me up with the IV?

(we all have those days!)

And if you're like me, love the thin ones, and are in the market, might I suggest the best darn thing since sliced bread - in the mug world that is. http://www.rosannainc.com/

Here's my latest obsession from Rosanna:

(Initally Yours from RosannaInc., a local Seattle tablewares maven)

Of course I would get the S for me and the P for Paul and the E for Emily...the list could go on. I just LOVE them.

I also have already received this fabulous set, but have yet to break it out (special occassions only, you know):

(Rococo Noir tea set from RosannaInc.)

I have the tea pot, as well as the cream and sugar set. Paul's wonderful parents, Marija and Piotr got this for me for Christmas this past year, and I could not be happier with it!

Me thinks it's time for a girls night! HA! (*shuffles off* time to plan a girls night in!)

I think I can, I think I can!

So, this weekend I'm going to a wedding shower for a friend of Paul's (she's Polish also, a couple years younger than Paul, but their families have known each other since before the kids were born), and I got the invitation a couple of weeks ago. It said that it's a hat party. Well, that should be fun, right? I have a few cute dresses to choose from.......but no hats to go with any of them. I LOVE hats, and have a TON of them, but none of them are "fancy" hats that would go with a dress.

Before I realized it, it was Thursday night and the shower is in two days! YIKES (at least I already have the gift! thankyouverymuch Macy's online!). So I decided rather than hunt various thirft stores for an overpriced hat that may or may not match one of my dresses (not to mention sometimes they're just a little musty smelling and "don't-touch-me-or-I'll-break-into-a-million-pieces" delicate, I'd make my own custom hat! Hat Couture (sorry, I know that was lame - 'hat'/'haute', you get it)

So off I went to JoAnns. Since I didn't have my dress with me, and wasn't even sure which one I'd wear (Depending on how fat or skinny I am, and the weather/temperature, and my mood), I got supplies for the hat in three different colors: forest green, navy, and dark taupe/beige.

I spent $20.75 on all the supplies. Here's what I used to create the hat:

-a kids sized foam visor: $1
-1 sheet of craft felt (eco-fi, made from recycled plastic bottles): $.72
-1/2 yard of shiny tulle (of which I used about 1/4 of): $.65
-a high temp glue gun (I only had a low temp one): $2.50
-a bag of mini glue sticks (I used 4): $2.50
-a fake Magnolia bloom (was 50% off): $2.50
-a fake cherry blossom bloom (or something like that, also 50% off): $1.99

Total price: $9.36 + tax (per hat, except of course the glue gun stuff you only buy once)

First I made a duplicate of the visor on some scratch card stock, so I could cut it up and play with how to make the actual hat form from the foam (say that 5 times fast).

Once I had figured out how I wanted the hat form to look, I used my template card stock to cut the foam, then glued it in place with my glue gun.

Then, I flipped it upside down and traced it on the wrong side of the felt, so I had a 1" boarder. I cut the felt out and used the glue gun to stretch, wrap, glue and repeat all the way around (of course doing the opposite ends first to avoid pulling and weird gathering). so then I had the basic hat form. (Save that scrap of left over felt for later, so you can cover the bottom side of the hat. you want it to look professional, right?)

Next, I cut out my tulle shapes. I wanted to do something a bit off center, with some body and volume, so I cut three different sized ovals, and gathered each one separately, (using the glue gun to "sew" at the gather. once the glue was dry, I had little veils). Then I sat in the mirror and played with positioning. After deciding on each one's position, I carefully glued it in place on the top side of the hat.

Once all three were complete, I grabbed my mag bloom, pulled it off the stem, cut the plastic part beneath it as short as possible, and then went back to the mirror to see where I wanted to position it. But FIRST, I pulled the big leaf off the stem and put that in place, so the flower had a base, and the hat had some contrasting color (otherwise it would be all white, cream and tan. blah!)

So, once you've got the mag (or other flower bloom) and leaf glued down, you can use your filler flower to fill in (duh) spots that either show a bit of glue, or show the base of your work. This way you add a pop of color, and some nice detailing that does double duty to cover your tracks!

Now, you're almost done. Take that left over felt, cover the bottom side of your, gluing it ALL OVER so that it really stays put. This is important because later you might need to use this as a base for bobby pins or a comb, to secure into your hair.

I however, took the stem from my filler flower, curved it into a headband, fit it to my head and cut it to the right length. It's already covered in floral tape, so it's a little sticky-ish, and it blends into most hair color (people are looking at the hat anyway, right?!) Then I sat in front of the mirror, AGAIN, and played with the position of the finished hat, atop the head band.

Once that was in place, I carefully took the hat with headband off, ran to the table. and traced the headband on the under side of the hat, so I can glue it later, if I decide to use the head band rather than bobby pins or a comb.

If you use bobby pins, then either get some that are going to blend in with your hat (you've done all this work, don't ruin the illusion with ugly bobby pins showing on the top of the hat) or you'll want to create little loops for the bobby pins to slide through using scraps of your felt on the bottom side of the hat.

Okay, without further ado, her are the pictures of the finished product (I promise to take more pictures when I'm wearing it, so you get the full effect):

This is the top view of the hat (above).

This is the back side of the hat....where most of the work would show, so I used my filler to cover it and act as a garnish to the major bloom (above).

This is the front/side of the hat (above). The tulle will sit over my left ear and side of my face. there are three layers of tulle, all in different positions and different sizes, you'll see when I post pics of me wearing it.

Okay, go and build!