The babysitter...

Hello friends!

Today is my birthday:) When my sweet sis asked what I wanted for my bday- I knew exactly. You see, I love my blog. But seriously? Sometimes it feels like a newborn baby. I'm never prepared. Always searching for inspiration and Monday nights are the WORST!! And this is what I look like:

My sweet hubby always says, "Love, you really should have some posts stocked up so you don't have these freak outs". Yeah ok. I'll get right on that. In my next life. So sweet sister o' mine is going to babysit my little bloggy tomorrow. Best. Bday. Present. EVER!

Be kind. No shenanigans, or when I get back I'll put you in the corner!! She's great, I promise. You'll love her :)

If the shoe fits... :)

A good thing (and one I choose to focus on waaay too much) about working, is the dressing up. I love to get dressed up and throw on a good pair of shoes :) always have. I remember when I was a little girl sitting in my mom's closet and trying to shove my size 7's (at the time) into her tiny size 5 1/2 shoes. You know, that whole Cinderella thing? Ugh! Sooo frustrating! I wanted sooo bad to prance around in her high heels! I swore someday I would have a closet full. And I do :)

I love funky, patterned, colored, spike, wedge, whatever it takes high heels :)

They always fit, and always make me happy :)

I guess maybe I love them because it's something that makes me feel so girly. And tall :) I think I was born to wear them, and I will wear them as long as my feet will allow me. I say to myself "once you go flat, you never go back!" Scarriest thought ever!

Yes, of course! Some of them are cruel. I call them 10 minute shoes. You know, the one's you can only wear from the car to the nearest chair? Who cares!! They're fab right? :) Well sometimes I feel like I should give my little tootsies a break.

So this past weekend I thought I'd throw these on. Oooooh reeeeally Chuck Taylor???? You are dead to me. These stinkin shoes gave me the WORST blisters on my feet. (look closely at the band aids on my heels in the pic above) I was hobbling around Costo with the hubbs and he was looking at me like- what in the world? Yeah, I felt like some bound foot woman from 16th century China!!! Ugh!!

So if it aint broke. Don't fix it.

Bought these sweet denim heels from Tarjay. $19.99 See ya Chucky!!!!

For the love of food... :)

Soooo, Saturday while I was visiting my friend Kristin's fabulous store FOUND, my sweet and very sneaky hubby was driving around back and picking up my Valentine's present. I have coveted this Feed Warehouse sign since I first laid eyes on it in K's store. I knew EXACTLY where it could find it's forever home. But with so many other projects needing to take priority, I told myself to forget about it. And then came Saturday.....

I came home from my visit, and there it was. Hung up and everything. It was PERFECTION :) and please take a moment to look at the sweet card attached. Red marker and a Trader Joe's bag was all the hubby needed. He's crafty like that ;)

Mmmm me loves!!

Now if any of you know my hubby, you know he wakes up before the sunshine. Always has. So completely opposite of me. Which is why it was near torture for me to wake up and make him some Valentine goodness for breakfast. Something about the way to a man's heart is thru his stomach? So get up I did. While trolling thru blogland last week, I came across David Eyre's pancakes. I can't remember where I found the recipe I used, but Martha has a good one. The ingredients are simple, but the taste? Amazing :)

Preheat your oven to 425 and mix your ingredients.

Stick your cast iron skillet in the oven to heat up. ( LOVE the blurry pic! neither my mind OR my camera work at such an hour!!)

And yes, get your bacon going. It's a must!

Melt the butter in the heated skillet.

Add your mixture and bake for 15-20 minutes. I think I could have cooked mine a little longer to brown it more :(

Squeeze fresh lemon over, and dust with powdered sugar.

Absolutely Scrumptious!!!

It was a wonderful way to start a very Happy Valentine's morning, or any morning for that matter! Thank you David Eyre :)

So yes, the way to his heart was thru his stomach, and the Food Warehouse was the way to mine :)

Love... it runs in the family :)

February. The month o love :) I don't have very many decorations for Valentine's Day, so I just put together what I already had with the addition of some sweet roses from Trader Joe's.
These cute little mini roses came from Traders, but the big beauties? From Zuzu's Petals. The sweetest little flower shop in downtown Mesa. Seriously, it's a must for all your flower needs. The ladies are fab and their creativity is like no other :)

I saw this cake mix at Traders and immediately put it in my cart. So cute right?

And here he is. My sweet lovin man :) We adore each other and have for the last 24 amazing years:) But.....

I'm having....

I am! There, I said it!! I'm truly, deeply, madly in love with my house right now! And thinking I always will be :) And I share this sentiment... with my sister:) Meet Michele and her sweet hubby Rod. Yeah, I know. They're ridiculously good looking!

Anyway, they live in this ADORABLE 1928 Tudor in the Willo district in Phoenix. They have this really cool urban, industrial, clean lined style about them. They're house is awesome I tell ya.

Their Tudor has several original details including the floors, doors, windows and claw foot tub.

And yes, my sister is crazy like me and inviting thousands of nosy people to check out her digs. Her awesome house along with several others will be on the Willo home tour this Sunday.

So what better way to spend your Sunday then looking at some fab houses that you would never be invited into otherwise! Do it! You won't be sorry:)

For more info on this cool home tour- go here!

Mmm....rain :)

I woke up this morning to the most glorious sound. No, not this little bully's heavy snoring (although I ADORE that sound) it was the sweet sound of a soft rain:)

You have to live in AZ to truly appreciate the blessing that is rain. Rainy days are my most favorite ever. And my sweet hubby knows it. This morning he whispered in my ear "just stay home today and enjoy the rain". God bless him. Really. After the home tour this past weekend, I felt so far behind on my "house stuff". So I took him up on his offer and went downstairs and made myself a cup o brew:) And let me tell you about my little teapot of happiness. It's made by Chantal, and see those 4 holes? When ready, it sings in 4 part harmony! Soooo cute right?? You gotta get one! TJ Maxx has em. $49.99 but soooo worth it!

This instant coffee that Starby's has is delish! It reeeally really is.

And reeeally good with a ton of heavy whipping creme and raw sugar :)

I took my little bully and my hot cup of deliciousness outside to check out the sky. Now I know to some of you this doesn't look like much, but any little bit of dark clouds makes this girl happy!

And check out my little ole sidewalk. Love that crack. When we were restoring, our concrete guy asked if we were going to rip up the old sidewalks. I looked at him with a look of "if you touch my old sidewalks, you die". He got the message :)

I made my way inside and wrapped myself in my dad's old sweater. I acquired this sweater one night when I was pregnant (with my now 23 yr.old daughter) with the promise that I'd return it. I never did :) my dad died in 1992 and it's one of my favorite treasures :)

I got caught up on my Masterpiece Theater on PBS. I happened to start watching this series and it has made it's way onto my "top favs" list! I'm a total sucker for a movie with the words m'lady and m'lord in them! And the outfits in this movie are to die for! If you didn't get a chance to see it- it's a must!

Little bully put in some couch time too :)

Then I got that ew I've spent too much time on the couch feeling and headed to the kitchen:) My hubby enjoys him some granola bars for breakfast so I thought I'd make him some. My daughter's boyfriend Chase found this really good recipe at Smitten Kitchen so I thought I'd give it a try.
I added a little more peanut butter than called for and flax seeds cause I love em!

They turned out uhmazing!!

Then I moved onto dinner. My hubby LOVES my chicken pot pie. I really wish I had a recipe to give you, but I just make it up :)

Little bully snored his way through the entire production.

And that's how I love to spend my rainy days :) Oh, and for the record it just kinda drizzled a few times during the day. But that's okay! You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!! :)

Chicken soup and a chicken coop!... :)

I've been wanting to try this recipe for beer bread from Yvonne over at Stonegable. So last week I decided to give it a try. And let me tell you, it does not disappoint!! Yvonne is not kidding when she talks about how good it smells while it's baking!

While the bread was in the oven I made a simple chicken soup. I shredded the leftover grilled chicken (I know, the pic makes it look soooo appetizing!) from the night before.

I started with a mirepoix (sounds so fancy right?).

Then added some chicken broth.

And if you haven't discovered this bomb chicken base- you must! My sis told me about it and it's fab! I picked mine up at Sprouts. I also keep the beef base on hand as well, makes EVERYTHING taste delish I tell ya! I just added a spoonful :)

Stirred in some frozen peas and the shredded chicken, a little cream and a thickener of water and brown rice flour and DONE!

Just in time for my bread to come out of the oven :)

Yummy, yummy, yummy! Chicken soup and warm bread- perfect, easy, winter meal :)

Speaking of chicken- let me introduce you to the one and only.... Lonely Girl. Or Girl for short. She's our last remaining chicken of the 3. One died of heat stroke (imagine that). And the other (we fear) was consumed by our next door neighbors dog. Poor Lonely. She's survived so much trauma in her short little life :(

Lonely no longer thinks she's a chicken. I think she thinks she's more like our dog. She comes to her name, and follows my husband EVERYWHERE. We (Wallace and I) have to constantly shoo her out of the house when the door is open.

This last Saturday the hubby decided to build her a house worthy of his love for her :)

And I swear she knew it! She was right there checking it out the entire time!

And here it is. Cuuuute right??!! Made out of.....the old fence of course!

With window boxes, and REAL flowers! (for now till they die a slow painful death when I forget to water them)

Girl didn't hesitate one bit going in and checking out her new digs :)

Of course Wallace loved it too :)

If you'd like to check out this sweet coop in person- you can! My house is going to be on the Mesa Historic Home Tour this Saturday from 10-4. You can find more info here. If you can't make it, you can check out some pics in the Cool House section of the Arizona Republic newspaper on Saturday :)