Memorial Day Weekend

I wish every weekend was three days. I was so happy Sunday night when I knew I didn't have to go back to work the next day. With the extra day, I feel more refreshed and energized. Lucky for me summer is just 12.5 days away. Wohoooo!

Saturday we celebrated little T's 2nd birthday. We love him dearly and he gets very excited when he sees his uncle JDer.

Today (Monday) we went to Black Hills for a hike. It was our first time there and it was packed with picnics and families grilling out. We grabbed a map from the visitor's center and were off. Our plan was to hike around the lake which we were told took about an hour.  We tried to follow the map but quickly learned we weren't doing so well. The park was beautiful and we saw quite a lot of it. After asking for directions, we made it back to the car 2.5 hours later. Did I mention it was 93 degrees? We had a great time escaping into the woods, but we were beat and my tush was feeling the burn.

 We had a picnic too, just indoors. We look forward to someday owning a grill and having an outdoor space but for now we just work with what we got.

Anyone else do something fun on this holiday weekend?

In other news, I made some improvements on my baby onesies and will be back to share the details.

Root beer love

Did you know growing up my favorite soda was root beer? I still love it. A&W is my favorite brand. I used to dig through those dum dum lollipops in search of the root beer flavor. We commonly made root beer floats too. Do you get it? I love root beer.

So when I heard of these root beer sandwiches, I couldn't resist. And they're made in the crock pot, added bonus! The pork is tender, flavorful, and when topped with a sweet sauce to. die. for.

It calls for root beer concentrate, but I never buy it. I also fill the crock pot with more than 1 cup of root beer. It also says to brown the meat in oil first. I never have time for that and just throw the meat right in the pot. Still tastes great.

Hungry yet? ha. Click here, for the recipe.

Craftin' for Baby

When giving gifts, I always try to include something personal, something handmade. Remember when I made these? Seems like everyone I know is with child or just had a baby.

Our good friends are having a baby girl in June, and I wanted to include something handmade. I didn't know what until these popped up in my blogger! Thanks for the inspiration, Alyssa. I know the slightest thing about embroidery, but I thought what the heck, I'll as least try.

They are pretty easy to make and I whipped 3 together in about 2.5 hours. They're not perfect by any means. I was on a roll and didn't bother to clean up my mess until today.

I liked how they turned out and hope baby and mama Panyutin will too.

In case your wondering (which your probably not), here's the gift all put together. Love that pink bucket.

Happy Craftin!

Winner winner chicken dinner

If you've watched 21, you probably recognize the phrase in the title. If not, check out this clip.



Anyway, why am I shouting winner winner chicken dinner? Thanks to Casey, who hosted a giveaway, I won these beautiful handmade cards.

I love their unique look and vintage feel. They even come with a matching lined envelope. Casey hosted the giveaway but Jami actually made them. Check out her store here.

I love giveaways, but really love them when I win!

Thanks girls!

Mother's Day & More

If you could hear through the internet you'd hear a big sigh of relief coming from yours truly. I finished my class and last assignment on Thursday. 1 down, 11 to go. Wowza, long way to go but I hear it goes quickly.

It's been a very productive and re-energizng weekend over here.  We attended a night of worship in DC on Friday, played tennis, ate at the Melting Pot for the first time and got a lot of other minute things accomplished.

In honor of Mother's Day, I wanted to thank my mom for everything she has done and continues to do for me. If you know my mom, you know she has such a loving heart for others.  Her willingness to give and to help others in unlike anyone I know. She always inspires me because so many of us value money and earthy things, but she sees it as a way to care for others.

On a totally different note. I wanted to share two great recipes we made over the past couple weeks.

Up first:
Creamy ravioli with squash, lemon, and chives 
From: Real Simple, found here

Next up:
Pesto orecchiette with chicken sausage
From: Real Simple, found here

Sorry, no photo for this one. I forgot.

Real simple was featuring pasta, and I've been looking for new pasta recipes.  The second one was good, but I liked the first one better.

What did you all do this weekend?

Now that my life will be a little less hectic, I'm hoping to blog more. We'll see.