Recipes from an accidental country girl...

I have this totally awesome friend. I would never say that I value my friends based on the gifts they give me. No, no, friendship is about sharing and caring. Not about gifts at all.

Laura stood in line for 2 and a half hours to get me the Pioneer Woman's cookbook autographed in Nashville. That's some sharing and caring!

PW actually scrawled my name across the page. I wonder if the crazy spelling of my name haunted her, "One 'l', a 'y' not an 'i', and a 'u' not an 'o.'

To Alysun

Enjoy!

(heart)

Ree/PW

Sigh. I am utterly content. Thanks Laura for this awesome gift! I was drooling over this cookbook ever since I heard PW was working on it last year. My sister and I agreed we had to have it. Of course we both set about getting it for each other's Christmas gift this year (great minds think alike). Then Laura stepped in and stole the show. Sorry sis! But it is autographed to me. I was so excited about receiving the cookbook from Laura that I told my sister about it. She said, "Great," really un-enthusiastically. Turns out she had already bought me a copy.... un-autographed. It wasn't her fault PW hasn't visited the northwest. Now we were in a quandry. My sister had a copy of the cookbook already and I had a copy that I had ordered for her, plus my super cool autographed copy. We scrambled about and exchanged different gifts on Christmas, leaving me with 2 copies of Pioneer Woman Cooks, Recipes From An Accidental Country Girl.

It's a great cookbook and has some fabulous photography and lots of good recipes. I'm keeping my autographed copy and hugging it each night as I fall asleep. I'll get around to cooking from it sometime soon too. And I am giving away the other book to one of you! Leave me a comment to win the random drawing (I'll ship the cookbook anywhere). I will announce the winner on Friday, January 1st, before noon my time. In your comment, tell me what your favorite recipe is to make during the holidays. Don't forget, your comment should include a way to contact you.

Read More.. Read More..

Help! - Mystery Solved!

Anyone know who makes the shoes of the girl in the lovely blue coat? Must-Have-Now!

(spotted via Fine Little Day)

Update: Thanks to Hanna (the lovely girl in the blue coat) who informed me that her shoes are in fact Palladium! Read More.. Read More..

Christmas pictures... 2009

Am I getting old? My favorite gift this Christmas was an electric tea pot. I also got a french press coffee maker and a label maker that made my heart beam. We had some fantastic celebrations. Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

This little girl was excited as any child could be about Christmas. She loved wrapping gifts this year. We now need a line item in our family budget for tape. She is a pro, just a bit enthusiastic with the adhesive.

A fun surprise this Christmas was hearing about my cousin Phil proposing to his girlfriend, Melanie, on top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. They are planning an April wedding. Emma gets to be a flower girl! That is the best present ever in her mind.

The cousins never fail to make me smile. My girls love being with their "friends and cousins," as Emma calls them.

I think grandparents enjoy Christmas almost as much as the kids. Jeff and I are blessed by our parents who all take an active role in spoiling and loving on our kids with their time and with gifts. I don't understand volunteering to sit at the kids' table, but I sure appreciated it!

Watch out for these kids. They are armed and dangerous. Jeff made all the nephews (and Emma and Mandy) rubber-band guns for Christmas. He made them out of the Black Walnut that fell at Grandma's place, so they have some sentimental value to us. It took about 2 nano seconds for all the rubber-bands to be lost. Amazingly just the snap of the clothes-pin triggers were entertainment enough. I have a lot to learn about boys.

Mandy made a new friend in Michelle, my sister-in-law Kelly's sister. Mandy made a point to chat with Michelle throughout the day and then cuddled up to her after lunch. She even fell asleep beside her new friend. I have no doubt that Mandy will be our wild child. Already at 2 years old, she loves the unexpected and enjoys being different. I think Mandy will look totally cool and beautiful with pink hair (just preparing the grandparents now :).

And this leads me to my favorite picture from this last week. Cousins, Remi (almost 3 months) and Jamin (5 months) hanging out together at their first Christmas.

(Yes, that is Emma in there taking a picture with her new digital camera)

If you follow my blog, you read about Jamin's struggles after he was born in July. There were several times that Jamin was brought back after he stopped breathing. I learned so much through the ordeal. It is hard for me to think about those days when losing him was a very strong possibility. God is ultimately in control and I imagine we have not even begun to see His purpose with Jamin's life. Having Remi and Jamin snuggled up together for a picture was precious. These two smiling boys are such a blessing to all of us.

I am working on the tree today. It is always a bit sad to say "good-bye" to the season, but we have really good memories and fun presents too. We have one more party with Jeff's family that we are looking forward to. Hope you all had a good Christmas!

Read More.. Read More..

Current Obsession: Pretty Underpinnings

Over the past couple of years I have become a very firm believer in having and wearing pretty underpinnings. Just knowing that I have something lovely on under even a boring t-shirt and jeans makes me feel more sexy and confident.



The new intimate sets at Anthrpologie are totally wondeful, I suggest you check them out!

(spotted via The Space Between) Read More.. Read More..

Merry Christmas and a cross word puzzle

This year I put together a cross word puzzle for the annual Christmas card. I love a long newsy letter, but what could I write about that wasn't already discussed in detail here? Ya, I couldn't think of anything either.

Leave a comment if you complete the puzzle or if you need help with the answers. :)








PS
To make the puzzle, I googled "Make your own crossword puzzle for free." There are a lot of sites that help you out. Totally fun time waster. Read More.. Read More..

Last minute crafts:

I've been working like an elf lately. I dreamed up some crafts for gifts and now am scurrying to get them all done. I've saved some money (made some too) and stayed warm and cozy while I worked instead of joining the hustle and bustle of Christmas shoppers.

Photo Album Card:

This photo album project is for a photography customer. I actually get paid for doing these. They are super easy. All it takes is a 5x7 card and matching envelope, the photo holder pages from a cheap album ($ Store), some ribbon and embellishments.

Pull-Over Towel Bibs:

I had to dust off my sewing machine for these bibs. Pull-over towel bibs are the best for little eaters and crafters. The t-shirt like neck stretches and one size really does fit all. If you are interested in making them, I can get you the directions.

Matching Game:

I got this idea from a teacher friend. Use juice concentrate lids/bottoms, cut out pictures (2 of each) for a versatile matching game. The game pictures has pictures of our family and Mandy loves playing it. For older children, matching upper and lower case letters. The pictures can easily be cut out and it is a fun craft project for kids.

Shabby Chic Headband:

I used scraps of flannel and sewed a simple headband with elastic on the bottom. The flower on top uses the rag technique. I sewed a rough shape of a flower and then clipped to the seam. Washing and drying produces the rough edge. I sewed the flower on with buttons.

Now, let the wrapping begin. I love doing stuff like this. As do my little helpers. It's fun times around here. :) What gifts have you made this year?

Read More.. Read More..

Best of 2009.... sister

I have an older sister. She's always been 2 years and 9 months older, if I recall correctly, until she stopped counting birthdays. Now she is younger by a few years. Her birthday is today and I believe she is 25... again. Happy Birthday, Sis!

(Andee and Nathaniel at the beach last Christmas)

I have mostly good memories with my sister growing up together. We played barbies in the huge mansions our dad made us under our bunk bed, listened to Adventures in Odyssey while going to sleep every night, played My Little Pony in the back of the Datsun pick-up all the way to California, and waited until our room was hazardous before we thought about cleaning it. The golden years ended when I was about 12 (read annoying). Oh, we fought, yelled, and screamed at each other! Sharing a room didn't help. I could not fathom how she could be so crazy about DC Talk and Michael W. Smith. Their music made me nauseous. It still does actually.

We moved into a new house and separate rooms when I was 12 and my sister was 15. I think the fighting lessoned at that point. Just don't bring up her most fantastically wonderful, triangle sleeve sweater that I got paint on or the white denim shorts that she charged me $3 per hour to borrow. By the time she left for college on the East Coast, I was ready to see her go. I had the place to myself. The bathroom we shared all to myself. Her CD player all to myself. It was good for about a month and then I missed her terribly. I recorded every episode of ER for her to watch and sent her cards and letters. I have some of the notes she sent back to me. I read them the other day and remembered the girls we were, growing into the women we would become.

(Andee sporting the apron I made for her as a birthday gift this year. It's Martha!)

Our lives veered in different directions when she got married in '99 and I was away at college in Canada. I remember talking to her on the pay phone in my dorm frequently. I was so young and naive and she had a husband! Somewhere along the way she became a wealth of information on boys and fashion. In a few years time, I caught up to her and got married too.

I promise we didn't plan it, that would just be weird, but we had our first babies just 5 weeks apart. Being pregnant together was not what I would call fun, but I'm glad we were. We didn't have any sympathy for one another, both claiming to be more miserable. Funny that we would both now agree that we had no idea what difficulty looked like. I saw a picture that was taken of the two of us at our joint baby shower, decidedly pregnant, looking uncomfortable and +100 extra pounds between the two of us. You could not pay me enough money to post that picture on my blog. Sorry folks. Some things do not need to be repeated.

Living near each other and parenting children of similar ages is a huge blessing in my life. I call my sister for all sorts of things these days from parenting tips to cooking questions. Sometimes I just need to whine and she lets me. No one understands me like she does because she knows it all. I think she even forgives me for being annoying. And the whole paint on the sweater thing. Now that I am the older sister, I am thinking of charging her to borrow some of my clothes. That would be fun. Or maybe I'll come up with some annoying nickname for her like she did to me (her children call me Auntie Snook). There has to be some price to pay for staying 25 forever.

Read More.. Read More..

Happy Happy

Posting will be light the next couple of weeks as I go into partial-holiday-shut-down.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!
xo, Roberta Jane

(photo) Read More.. Read More..

Baby pictures:

I think I'll remember ever detail. But I don't. When I hold my sweet baby #3 against my chest, I close my eyes and try to remember this exact moment with baby #1 and baby #2. The memories are muddled, but they are there. They grew and one stage replaced another until I now have a 5 year old and a 2 year old. How did those moments fly by so fast?

Photo assignment:

You would think I, of all people, take plenty of pictures of my kids. Not true. I have to remind myself often to snap a picture. These moments pass too quickly. Remi is almost 3 months old! I can hardly believe it. So, take more pictures of your precious children. Put your baby/child in front of a window and get up close. Play around with the settings on your camera, try different posses, take 100+ pictures. You'll be glad you did. You would never know from these close ups of Remington that there were piles of laundry on the floor, there was play-doh stuck in my garlic press, and the kitchen was a mess. Some things are more important.

Read More.. Read More..

Notes To Self

Some recent Notes To Self:

1. Make the messy-long-bob my go to hairstyle of 2010 (Camille Bidault-Waddington via TFS)...


2. Rearrange shelves so that all denim and stripes sit next to each other (Jak & Jil)...


3. Find someone to knit me a cozy shoulder-warmer (Wool and the Gang)...
Read More.. Read More..

Decorating Meddler Strikes

Danielle has her first real gig. Not really. True to my meddling form, I went and stole a picture from my Aunt's blog and went to town with online shopping and photoshop. Be careful what you post on the internet! She casually mentioned she needed curtains for her living room and I came up with a solution for her.

BEFORE:

My aunt recently moved with her family to Canada from southern California. They are busily enjoying the cold winter and settling in making their house a home. I am very impressed with the new green paint they found on clearance in the mis-mixed section. Great idea! It looks great with the white trim.

From what I can tell from the pictures, the couch looks like a neutral cream. The hardwood floors and other wood accents warm up the space, but I think the room needs more texture, more pattern and an additional color or two.

AFTER:

I found a great throw pillow at Pottery Barn. It has the green from the walls and also pulls in a subtle red since I know there are other red touches throughout the house. The couch, floors, fireplace, and clock all lend to the classic feel. I wanted to add to that, but not get too "retirement home" about it. The 20" pillow covers are $39 each plus the insert for $14. I am sure my aunt can find an inspirational pattern for pillows for much cheaper and sew them herself. I used really pretty store-bought napkins once for pillows, $3.99 a piece.

I added a tonal, paisley gold panel curtain also from Pottery Barn. They are a $89 per 50" panel *gulp*, so I think a similar look from JC Penny (they have great clearance drapes) or making them would be the best idea. The brown linen roman shades are from JC Penny for $29 per shade. I would hang the curtains out from the window and above the casing, making what will look like a whole wall of windows.

The rug, from Overstock.com is $378. They have free shipping right now. A big rug that adds color and texture is just the right touch I think.

When the beautiful Christmas tree comes down, I think 2 chairs in front of the window would be perfect. These are also from Overstock for $170 each.

That's all for this post. Danielle will strike again soon.

Read More.. Read More..

Best of 2009.... worst messes

When Mandy got into a tub of sticky, greasy, Bag Balm, it was the most difficult mess I've ever had to clean.

Well meaning people suggested cures such as soaking her head in kerosene or gasoline. I tried adult shampoo and bar soap and it didn't touch the goop in her hair. I was ready to try the fuel idea. But then I discovered that dishwashing soap worked pretty well when well rinsed from her hair. I probably washed her hair 30-40 times in the 3 days before Easter.

While the Bag Balm was the hardest mess to clean, it wasn't the grossest of 2009. That honor belongs to one morning of exploding vomit and diarrhea by both of my girls in the car and the tub. I'm still not ready to laugh about it. Just be glad I don't have pictures.

Read More.. Read More..

How I Wear Them

I've had several inquires about how I'd outfit my Chloe Sevigny x Opening Ceremony Bass Boots, so I thought I would share with you a photo I took this weekend. I was on my way to the Portland Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Holiday Sale (mouthful)... there was lots of salt on the sidewalks... and then click, a photo opportunity!


Alright, so you can't see much of the outfit, but it goes a little something like this... Ranger Boots, Striped Gap socks, Zara leggings, Urban Skirt, H&M popover sweatshirt, Anthropologie Coat.... Winter-time Sweetness! Read More.. Read More..

Best of 2009.... smile

I was flipping thru our local channels the other evening and came across a program of great importance: Best Worst Scandals of 2009. It was something about Jon and Kate, blah, blah, blah, Tiger, blah, blah, blah, Michael, blah, blah, blah.

After I changed the channel to watch a re-cap of the 2007 Iron Man race, I started thinking of the "bests" in my life. This is one of them. The best smile of 2009 goes to our littlest guy.

I think the angels taught him how to smile in heaven because he has literally been smiling with purpose since birth. I am blown-away blessed every day by Remi.

I'll be posting some more "bests" and maybe some "best worsts" as well throughout the next few weeks.

Read More.. Read More..

Holiday Wish List, Part I

A few things I have had my eye on as of late...





APC Shirtdress ($210), Mociun Hat ($184), APC x Nike ($140), Shabad Tote ($68), Hansel from Basel Tight ($19.95), Thief and Bandit Tee ($28), Steven Alan Bra ($68), Bittersweets Ring ($98), Secrets of Charm Dress ($250), Shabad Leggings ($120). Read More.. Read More..