My Favorite Things:

You may or may not know that April is a special month for me. It's my birthday month! In "honor" of my birthday (I turned 30 a week ago -- so it's kinda a big one) I will be blogging about myself a bit more than usual... Starting with this post! Backstory: I have a friend who started a blog around the same time that I did. LM blogs monthly about her current "favorites" and obsessions (you can check out her April blog about this here). I decided to take a page from her this month and write a post about my current favorite things. Without further ado, my current faves and obsessions:

Salted Caramel.....ANYTHING

I've seen people say that salted caramel as a "thing" has been overdone. I say nope. Nada. NO WAY. It's sooooo good! So, keep making Salted Caramel... ANYTHING. Seriously. Creamer. Candy. Cookies. Just... YUM. (and speaking of salted caramel, here's a Salted Caramel Shake that I'd like to try...)


Alex & Ani Bracelets

AlexandAni-ED-SZ I have LM to thank for these lovely bracelets being in my life. They are SO MUCH FUN. I keep requesting bracelets for special occasions. I previously noted receiving the "E" and the key from Jimmy... and for my birthday Jimmy/Skylar gave me an "S" and LM gave me my birthstone and an off-brand "Joy" bracelet. I used some birthday money to buy the "because I'm a girl." I'm really enjoying the memories attached to the bracelets and slowly building up my collection. AND it's really fun to have something like this to share with a dear friend many miles away! :)


Harley Quinn (full name: Princess Harley Quinn Banana Hammock Graham*)

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I adore our kitty. She's a sweetie and definitely more than a "thing," but since I haven't blogged about her yet I thought it important to include her. THe best experiences I've ever had with cats have been tabby cats. Harley is no exception. She's amazing.... I'm so thankful my wonderful friend Mary found her for me (she was my Christmas present several years ago -- Jimmy knew, I did not). She's a lap kitty who is playful and cute and snuggly (in fact she's currently cuddled up against me!). I cannot imagine not having her in our home! ♥


Cadbury Caramel Eggs

I think it's safe to say that I'm in love with all things caramel right now (not JUST salted caramel). Because that's the case it's probably surprising that I had NEVER tried the Caramel Cadbury egg -- until this Easter... and WHAM it's a game-changer. Cadbury cream eggs have long been a favorite of mine, but this year the simple caramel filled egg just SLID into first for my favorite Easter candy of all time. SO YUM. (I have a couple left to enjoy sparingly... and then *sob* no more until next year...)


Harry Potter.

Okay, I know I already wrote a whole blog post about the books (and I'm still IN LOVE with them -- they are awesome!), but I've started watching the movies... and oh-woah that's a whole other thing! I'm so excited about the whole of it... the movies, the books... everything! I haven't finished the movies yet... but I have enjoyed three of them and I'm quite impressed by how well adapted they are! They're not perfect... no movie will ever live up to my imagination (cuz, you know, my imagination ROCKS), but I do appreciate that these movies are visually stunning, well casted, and include some of my favorite parts from the books.


Amazon.com

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It's probably ridiculous that an online shopping website is one of my favorite things, but as a stay-at-home-mom I don't get out all that much (seriously, it's a production to go anywhere -- We're going places -- but not every day). A lot of the time it's so much easier to just order something from the comfort of my own couch (with Skylar on my lap). Add that we have Amazon Prime and it's just amazing. Sure! I can wait 2 days to get that cheaper and better product! To get that product that I would have to SEARCH for in Walmart or Target or wherever... YES. Thank you, Amazon Prime! :)


Nail Polish

I love me some nail polish and really I could (and probably should) write a whole post just about this! It's becoming an obsession I think. Pre-birthday I counted all of my nail polish bottles... and I have... *drum-roll* .... 305 polishes! Of course that was BEFORE I received birthday presents and bought these beauties at Sephora today:

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I also may start MAKING polish in the very near future... My neighbor actually gave me a kit for my birthday to start making polish at home... I'm so excited! I cannot wait! I need to get some free time AND inspiration at the same time... but homemade polish here I come! :)


Nathan Water bottles

I have no less than 5 of these bottles... various colors and even one that is made of metal:

I love them for 3 reasons. 1: They usually fit in a cup holder! This is huge!! A lot of water bottles are too big and don't fit well, but this one does pretty well in almost every case. :) 2: The top closes easily and quickly and almost never leaks (when it functions correctly... I've had one bottle that didn't close quite right and that one would leak a little). 3: Skylar first learned to drink out of a water bottle with a Nathan bottle and continues to prefer it. It's so easy to drink out of and I will probably own more... cuz, well, I'm obsessed. heheh... Oh, and one more reason I love them: bright colors! I've been really attracted to everything bright lately and these bottles feed that love! :)

Well, that's all I can think of at the moment... but maybe I'll make this a regular "feature" if you guys are interested... probably will depend on the way this post is received... SO COMMENT if you wanna hear more about my "favorite things." ;)

xooxoxoxox

*Bonus points to those who get the name reference! ;)

Valentine's Day (pictures, and recipes, and presents, oh! my!)

As I mentioned in my previous post: I love Valentine's Day. I've had lots of good ones in the past... and this one was no exception! In fact, I think it was one of the best! I got to share it with my two loves: Jimmy & my precious daughter Skylar! Jimmy and I had alone time at night AND Skylar and I had plenty of great times together earlier in the day! It was pretty near perfect. So, here are a few highlights of the day: Woke up around 6 to feed Skylar and wrote a note to my hubby in lipstick on the mirror... along with a sassy card that I left on the sink counter for him to discover when he got up to take a shower. (muhahah - I can be sexy as well as sweet!) I then went back to sleep... woke when Jimmy kissed me goodbye and told me he loved me! (including his appreciation for the mirror/card). Slept in for a while.... & got up to send a dear friend her Valentine's Day surprise!!! :)

I spent the morning sending various surprises via e-mail, text, facebook... It was so much fun! I love stuff like that! Skylar woke up and "helped" me with some of my projects on the computer and then we had a mini-photo session with my iphone:

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Then we dropped off some v-day bags to a couple neighbor girls... and packages and FLOWERS arrived!:

Roses (Jimmy, you did good! I love them!)

The rest of Valentine's Day involved hanging with Skylar, loving on her and... you guessed it... more pictures! This time she was more dressed up with headbands and such and I used my fancy Cannon SLR:

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(more pictures will be uploaded from that "photo-shoot" sometime in the near future -- hopefully this weekend!)

Finally around 4 I figured dinner should be started... ANd here's where I was nervous: I decided to make something new... & something reasonably HEALTHY for Valentine's Day. I've been really wanting to try a healthy Fettuccine Alfredo recipe I found on Pinterest (resolutions! Ding-ding!). Yes, you read that right... HEALTHY Fettuccine Alfredo. I started making it... prepping everything... and put Skylar down for her "late in the afternoon/evening" nap right when Jimmy sent me an ETA for being home (perfect timing - yay!). I was hopeful that it would be good... but, i have to admit, a bit skeptical. Well, half-way through the process I started raving about the sauce to my friend through text. You guys, I wanted to DRINK the sauce. Seriously. And that was BEFORE adding cream. In fact, in the future, I'm pretty sure I could skip the 1/4 cup of cream and not notice in the slightest. I finished the recipe soon after Jimmy got home (adding chicken -- because we needed some PROTEIN with all those carbs from the noodles) and plated it!:

Fettuccine Alfredo-sz (plated... but not well... Hey! I'm not a chef!)

We both LOVED this meal, ya'll (so becoming a southerner... wow). It was so... YUMMY and flavorful! I will be using what I am dubbing the: "cauliflower creamy method" to make this and lots of other things in the future! I'm so excited to be experimenting with it... because it truly adds so much smooth, creamy, goodness to a sauce (or a soup, or a pasta dish, or ... well, you get the idea).

The pasta, well, that part is another story... I'm really not sure how to omit that part... Except by using spaghetti squash... which I am only reminded of because a friend mentioned it recently (thanks, Liz!) I'll have to try out the sauce on spaghetti squash sometime in the near future!

After dinner we moved on to opening presents (Skylar was still sleeping -- good timing, little babe, good timing!). His & Hers:

Presents

Inside Jimmys: JellyBelly's (and a promise to buy more from the "menu" that he likes -- I couldn't find a place with all of the specific flavors in time for Valentine's Day, but I will get more in the near future to fill his Jellybelly candy dispenser!), A Hacker Book & another copy of Archer (he can't find his at the moment)... and finally another "I Owe You" for body wash that's coming! :)

Inside Mine: FILM for my Fuji Instant Camera!! (Jimmy got me the camera for Christmas -- we celebrated as a family here in NC only recently --but it didn't come with film. Both he & I were surprised... so he got me a pack of "50 shots" for Valentine's Day!), Chocolates... seriously, a very sexy box of chocolates! (with lace on the front -- so pretty), Roses (already pictured), and an Alex & Ani bracelet!!!!!:

Bracelets-sz (The "E" was a Christmas present! & J gave me the Key for Valentine's Day. I'm so excited to have more than 1 now!!)

First picture taken with the instant camera:

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We had a few more minutes together before little miss Skylar woke up... and then she was awake and ready to hang with family! We spent the rest of the evening relaxing together and having fun! It was pretty near perfect! And Skylar (who was sick and getting over having shots earlier this week) enjoyed the evening and seemed to be getting better! yay!

After Skylar went down for the night we had some more grown-up-time and then it was time for bed for us too!! All-in-all it was a pretty wonderful Valentine's Day!

So, readers, how was your day!?!?!?!!? I wanna hear about your adventures into this day of love! How did you show love to those in your life???

xo, Emmie