Simply Emily

MIA and a new direction

2011-08-29T09:15:00.001-04:00

Well.... where do I begin.... four months ago I gave birth to a BEAUTIFUL baby boy! You may have noticed I was smuggling a watermelon in the last post, so as you can imagine I've been busy ever since then. They say life changes when you have a baby and even though I believed them I wasn't really able to grasp HOW much it was going to change and how it changes instantly.

It has taken some getting used to but it has been amazing at the same time, what a beautiful experience. Liam is such a cutie pie - such a happy and healthy baby. Thank God!

This has been a humbling experience, a learning experience and an inspirational experience - I thought I had it all figured out before Liam was born and QUICKLY realized I hardly had it figured out, I am learning something new everyday now; how to take care of a baby, how to be a good Mom and how to be a better person. Inspirational... having Liam has inspired me in many ways that I can hardly put them all into words.

Having a baby for me has given me more clarity (actually I'm hardly "clear" about anything lately I think I'm always in a fog now LOL) and made me more focused. I am focused on providing the BEST life I can for Liam and one of the ways I'm going to do that is providing him with the best meals I can made with REAL food, of course he's only four months old and hasn't started on solids but when he does I'll be READY!

With all that being said I'm going to stop this blog.... and start a new blog that will just be about our culinary adventures not about everything since thing in my life, I think that will help me be FOCUSED on blogging and not feel pressured to have a blogable (LOL) life. Cooking has been a passion of mine for a long time and I can't wait to share that passion with you all.

Stay tuned to for the release of my new blog in the next few days. In the meantime here's a picture of the little cutie patootie.

Spring Time in Savannah

2011-03-24T08:46:00.002-04:00

Recently we were fortunate to have a visit from one of our bestest friends in the whole world. We had such a great time and one of the best things is that besides enjoying each others time we were able to enjoy some beautiful views of springtime in Savannah. All the flowers and trees are in full bloom right now and it's a beautiful sight to see. I hope you're enjoying Spring where ever you are in the world.

Thanks for the visit Miss Pea. :)

New Blog Banner

2011-03-23T10:03:00.004-04:00

Well I'm finally sweeping away all the Christmas Decor from my blog and freshing it up with a new blog banner.

Spring Cleaning

2011-03-22T08:30:00.001-04:00

Man oh man it has been a LONG time since I've had a minute to sit and pay any attention to my little blog, well it desperately needs the cobwebs dusted off and to be spruced up a bit and hopefully I'll be getting to that shortly.

There have been A LOT of changes going on in our lives and still one more major one to come - all have been extremely positive and beyond our wildest dreams.

Stayed tuned for the updates, some spring cleaning, some decorating and even some cooking.

And when all the details come together....

2011-01-14T08:30:00.001-05:00

you have a great time! This Christmas was really special for many different reasons; one of the main reasons was for the first time in a while Fernando's whole side of the family was together and wanted to all come and spend the holidays in our new home. We really had a nice holiday and are truly blessed.

we EVEN had some snow, just to add to the magic of the whole holiday weekend.

and hey what's Christmas without a pirate in the mix. LOL

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday this year and many happy ones to come. That concludes the Christmas 2010 portion of my blog.

Now onto the NEW YEAR!!!

Some more of the Details: Christmas Table Setting

2011-01-13T08:30:00.000-05:00

For our Christmas Eve dinner I tried out two different centerpiece place settings. One I had been planning all along the first one you see here but the other I wanted to try out just to see how it would look. I think the second one would have worked well if I had had a white or blue table cloth but it was just not working with what I had.

This first table setting is very rustic and I love it. I had purchase a bag of pine cones last year at and after Christmas sale so they were muy cheap and then I got the round faces this year I used fresh cranberries and floated them in water with a tea light candle in each vase - totally worked and very easy to put together.

Here's option two - again could totally work but just not with the color scheme I had going. Also I had been planning to make pom poms with each person's name on them for everyone's place setting and have that be the place card but in the end that did not happen.

Ornaments could make a great place card and I may try that next year since I bought some clear glass ornaments I could work up something cool with those, like perhaps putting each person's picture in it... ohhh already planning.

Here is what made the final cut - I added a few more candles than I had previously designed and I think it looks/looked great. Simple yet beautiful. I was pretty impressed with myself.

The details in preparing for Christmas 2010

2011-01-11T08:30:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you're all Christmassed out but let me back track a few days and go over some of the details that went into our Christmas this year. One of the things that Fer and I really wanted to do since we were having the whole family come to stay with us this Christmas was have a wall of stockings hung waiting for everyone that was going to be here. We felt that it would be such a welcoming statement to them when they entered our home. I hope they felt that way.

Since buying 9 stockings with their names embroidered on them or even just the initials could run a pretty penny we decided to purchase simple traditional stockings and then I would make the initials for each stocking... somehow.

I found in Microsoft Word a good "block type" font that would be easy to cut out of cardboard and work with, so I printed everyone's initials in like a size 250 font and traced those letters onto cardboard.

Then I covered them in glue and glittered them. :) Green for the boys and red for the girls.

Love glitter.

And here is the finished product. I attached the letters with fabric glue directly to the stocking. We hung all the stockings with good ole command hooks - got to love them. Hung easily and took them down easily.

So there you have it. Stockings for the whole family 101. :)

2010 Christmas Card in the Making

2011-01-10T08:29:00.000-05:00

Once again Zico was the main focus of our Christmas Card, he's such a cutie and such a cooperative model. Here's a quick look at all the photos that I took and that it takes in order to find just the right one.

Here's the winning picture. I just love it, he's such a fluffy little guy.

Here's how the final product turned out, isn't it great. I ordered the cards from Costco which I've been doing for the past few years, for $15 dollars you get 50 cards plus envelopes - that's the kind of deal that works for me. :) Can't wait to work on our Christmas card in 2011 should be fun.

4 Days till Christmas

2010-12-21T08:47:00.001-05:00

Stockings are hung, guest room is ready - 4 days till Christmas...bring it ON! Later on today or tomorrow I'll post a photographic tour of our home all decked out for the holidays this year and also some details on the stockings and holiday art.

Some Changes Going On

2010-12-14T08:30:00.000-05:00

Last night I made some changes to our Christmas tree - I didn't like the colored lights anymore so I took all the ornaments down and put up white lights NOW I'm much happier. I also added some more silver and snowflake ornaments to the tree to help balance out all the red. Okay now (for the most part) I can relax and enjoy it. There may be one more change I need to make we'll see. How is your Christmas decorating going at home?

And just for a cutie pie picture update, look at this little guy. Could he be any cuter? In his little sweater all snuggled up in a pile of blankets. Looking very distinguished.

It's Getting Chilly Out There

2010-12-13T08:16:00.000-05:00

Well it's beginning to feel more and more like Christmas time because of the very cold temperatures outside. By the time you read this post it may be even colder in the Savannah area - it's supposed to possibly drop below 20 degrees. INSANE - stay bundled up and keep warm.

Holiday Blog Banner

2010-12-11T08:06:00.001-05:00

I had to decorate my blog for Christmas, so I grabbed one of my banners from last Christmas, I will have to update it for this christmas but in the meantime Feliz Navidad! We're in the holiday spirit here that's for sure.

Make Your Own Pom Poms

2010-12-10T08:30:00.001-05:00

Well if you haven't guessed or figured it out by now I'm on a pom pom kick this holiday season. Here is a quick little tutorial on how to make your own pom poms out of yarn.

I used my handy dandy Martha Stewart Circle Cutter to cut out the templates to use to make the pom pom.

Here are the simple templates you'll need to use in order to make a pom pom.

Then wrap the template all around with yarn, you'll notice that Zico Biscuit was watching this pom pom making process very intently. It was hilarious he kept trying to grab the ball of yarn and run off with it.

And voila here is your finished pom pom. There is actually two more steps I need to show you - one is cutting the yarn around the template and the other is tying all the yard with another piece of yarn. Stay tuned for an update and a flurry of pom poms to hit the scene.

Have a great weekend, whip up a pom pom or two.

Pom Pom Wreath

2010-12-09T08:30:00.000-05:00

Well the little Pom Pom tree has a buddy now - the Pom Pom wreath, don'tcha just love it. I can't get enough of Pom Poms this year. I followed the same procedure making this wreath as a I did when making the tree - just a styrofoam wreath form, lot's of pom poms and hot glue.

How is your holiday crafting going?

Holiday Subway Art

2010-12-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

A few days ago I came across the blog eighteen 25 and saw this awesome Holiday Subway art that the gals of eighteen 25 were giving away for FREE, how awesome is that! I have been wanting to make or buy some subway art for our house and this is just a cute way of incorporating that type of art and something for the holidays in our home right now. You can find the post about that download here.

Here's how it looks framed in our kitchen:

and a picture of Zico Biscuit in his Santa sweater - looking at me like what are you doing?

Some Weekend Baking

2010-12-06T08:30:00.001-05:00

How was your weekend? I did a lot of decorating, a lot of organizing, some shopping, a lot of watching decorating and cooking shows and a little baking. I was hoping to whip up all my Christmas cookies this weekend and freeze the dough for later baking but that didn't happen, oh well. But I was watching Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa on Sunday and was inspired to try this pound cake recipe. It uses Buttermilk which was great since I had some that I needed to use up, but I don't remember ever using buttermilk in a pound cake recipe before. It came out delicious, not to heavy, very light and fluffy. We indulged in one and froze the other for use during the holiday.

Hope you had a great weekend.

Christmas in Savannah

2010-12-03T08:30:00.001-05:00

Here are some recent pictures from the downtown Historic District of Savannah, GA all dressed up for the holidays. In a previous post I told you that we've moved and that now the Savannah area of a Georgia is our new stomping grounds and I hope it will remain that way for a long time. We love it here, it's a smaller town feel but has everything we need. One of the things I really like about Savannah is the fact that there's always something going on to keep one entertained.

This particular weekend we went down to the Historic District they were having a festival called Holly Days. In one square they were carving ice sculptures, in another (somehow) snow had fallen and piled up for kids to be able to run around in and make snowballs. :) And then on Broughton Street they had closed down part of the street and had an ice skating rink for people to skate on. It's just so fun and so nice to be a part of all of these activities.

I hope you're enjoying the holidays in your neck of the woods. We also managed to make a stop at Leopold's Ice Cream Shop for the first time when we went down for the Holly Days. It's a traditional old ice cream shop and it's delicious. All the ice cream is homemade. I had butter pecan and Fer had cinnamon. YUMMMY.
Have a great weekend.

The Countdown has Begun

2010-12-02T08:21:00.001-05:00

Only 23 days till Christmas and SO much to do! What are you doing to prepare for the holiday? I know I need to make a list first... make cookies, buy gifts, decorate house, plan holiday dinner menu and table setting.... I'm sure there's more. Have a good day.

The Tree is Up

2010-12-01T08:30:00.002-05:00

We put up our tree this past weekend. There are still a few details to be added but for the most part it's up and it looks great. It's a simple little tree but works for us; it's all about peace love and memories. :) Little by little the house is getting into Christmas mode and I love it. This year we are going to have a FULL house for Christmas and I am getting so excited but that means we have a lot of work to do between now and when our guesst start arriving. Hope you're enjoying the Christmas season in your home.

The Christmas Season has Begun

2010-11-30T08:30:00.001-05:00

A quick and crafty post of something I created over the weekend. For some reason I am all about pom poms this holiday season so I started by making a little red and white pom pom christmas tree, it was super easy all you need is a styrofoam tree form, pom poms and a hot glue gun. I decided an ornament on top of the tree was better than the original single pom pom I had on it so other than that it's all pom poms. :)

I wanted it to be mostly white with just touches of red as you can see from the pictures. Easy peasy I hope you have time to whip one up and I hope that this inspires you to get crafty this now this holiday season.

Is it all about the Centerpiece?

2010-11-29T08:24:00.001-05:00

So what is the perfect formula for a great dinner, a great dinner party or a great holiday meal? Is it all about the centerpiece or does it have something to do with your guests, or hmmm even perhaps the meal?

Well here's my formula for a great dinner; first of all it take a lot of practice I would just say it's recently that I've been figuring out how to get it all done and not stress out about it, which is my second point don't stress out (easier said than done, of course) but if YOU do not enjoy the meal and the whole process then there's not point in doing it because you and your guests should enjoy the whole event.

Simply broken done here is my formula: Great Guests + (Great Centerpiece+Beautiful Table Setting) + Great Meal = Awesome Dinner/Holiday Meal.

I would also highly recommend planning out everything at LEAST three days before so you can get the necessary supplies and ingredients before the big day.

I will use our recent Thanksgiving Meal as my example of a Great Holiday Meal, I began with great guests. :) My parents - they traditionally come and visit for Thanksgiving and this year in particular is a really special time for us and I will go into more detail on WHY that is soon.

Then I came up with the centerpiece... I had been wondering what to do for awhile and I looked around what I already had and had been wanting to try for awhile and since we still had our small halloween pumpkin I decided to spruce it up and glitter it and it made a GREAT centerpiece. To glitter it took about 5 minutes and it will last for quite awhile. Then I let it dry over night and kept thinking of what else I do to it to make it awesome. I was orginally just going to put it on a cake plate but then I remembered I had this pottery barn woven charger (which I bought for only $4 a while ago) so I grabbed that and grabbed a bag of mixed nuts that we bought for the holiday and just dropped them around the pumpkin. :) I love it!!!

Then I worked on the table setting. On a trip to Target recently I picked up a new tablecloth a few inexpensive place mats and new napkins. Then for a simple ornament on top of the plate I just bought some pears, which I actually love because I believe that the pears really tied in all the colors and obviously they are inexpensive.

I also used some mason jars (that I had bought a while ago at the grocery store for canning, but I don't can) and put some kosher salt in the bottom and then a candle on top of that for added awesomeness. I think this is a simple table setting but very elegant at the same time which I love.

Next onto the meal. I will post my menu for Thanksgiving in my next post. I hope you all had a great holiday meal this year and that these simple ideas will help you with your next dinner party or holiday get together.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T08:05:00.003-05:00

I hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving holiday with your friends and family. I am putting the finishing touches on our thanksgiving dinner and decorations.

For our centerpiece I have glittered a pumpkin... so Martha Stewart. Stay tuned for more details on all the festivities.

Two Years Old Today!

2010-11-23T08:50:00.001-05:00

Today my little fluffy guy turns two, I am so thankful for this little guy the amount of joy he has brought to our lives is unmeasurable.

December is Coming

2010-11-22T08:15:00.000-05:00

Well I don't want to pass right over Thanksgiving - that is a very important holiday for me, but I do want to remind you about Ali Edwards Annual December Daily Project and if you haven't been to her website lately she's already in December Daily prep mode. So head on over there and start gathering your supplies and deciding how you'd like to document a very magical time of the year in your life.

I'm still trying to decide if I'm going all digital this year or a combination of paper and digi or go all old school with paper and glue. :) We'll see, but no matter what HAVE FUN!

Where have we been and where are we going?

2010-11-19T08:00:00.001-05:00

Where the heck have I been??? Well a lot has been going on, but let me begin with the first of many, we've MOVED! Fer's job was transferred once again (mine too this time) so we picked up ALL our stuff and moved to the Savannah area of Georgia, about 4 hours from Atlanta. We have been SO busy with the move and there will be lot's of details to share from the past 3 to 4 months - so little by little I'll be blogging them out. :)

As you can see Zico was helping me as always, he's such a cutie pie and has really handled this move quite well which makes us happy.

I hope you all have a great weekend and shall I say I'm so glad to be back to blogging. Lot's more to come.

Atlanta Restaurants: Canoe

2010-07-28T08:16:00.001-04:00

I wrote about Canoe a while ago when we all gathered there in March for my birthday. Well Fer and I finally made it back there this past Sunday to enjoy their delicious Brunch that they are so famous for and boy was it good. We started off with Sticky Buns with Georgia Pecans and coffee then of course had an order of the salmon with potato pancakes - for me that would be a enough and I would walk out of there completely content but we also had a main entree that day. I had pancakes and Fer had scrambled eggs with baby Maine shrimp; both meals were quite yummy.

After brunch we had a chance to walk around the beautiful gardens outside it was such a nice outing.

Simple Things in Life

2010-07-27T08:30:00.001-04:00

Often after a long day of work it's nice to just come home to a quiet evening and enjoy a delicious meal. Here's a simple sandwich I threw together with tomatoes, mozzarella and prosciutto topped off with basil from my garden and delicious olive oil. Of course a glass of wine to wash it all down. :)

Here's to the simple things in life.

Scenes from the Weekend

2010-07-22T08:00:00.001-04:00

This is what we did last weekend!!! White Water Rafting on a river in North Carolina, it was amazing. So much fun and I can't wait to do it again. I hope this upcoming weekend is just as exciting.

Sangria - How to...

2010-07-21T08:00:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago we attended a party and they had Sangria (now Sangria can go either way... good or bad, I think) but this Sangria in particular was DELICIOUS! It starts with Boxed Wine (LOL)

don't pay attention to what is holding up the boxed wine... Zico's food bucket
add lemons, oranges, apples and mint
a cup of cointreau, and a bottle of sprite and you're done! ENJOY

Savannah at Night

2010-07-19T08:00:00.001-04:00

Here's some pictures of the beautiful city of Savannah at night. This first one is of River Street at night and the others are of a new park in the City Market area of the Historic District in Savannah. It's so nice to walk around at night and see the little city buzzing with locals and tourists. Hope you enjoy the photos.

TGIF: Zico with the New Purchase

2010-07-16T08:29:00.001-04:00

Here's to having a great weekend.

Zico pictured in a summery photo with my new Garden Stool/Coffee Table.

It's all about the timing

2010-07-15T08:02:00.001-04:00

The other day I nonchalantly went to Target during my lunch break to pick up Bret Michaels latest CD... :) more on that later and as I was strolling around the store I noticed the summer stuff (already) was 75% off so I took a gander to see what they had left and LOW AND BEHOLD the Ceramic Garden Stools I've been WANTING were ON SALE. These stools are normally $70 to $90 dollars, but they were marked down to $23 dollars I have JUMPING for JOY! I'm sure you could understand. I would have bought all of them I couldn't believe the price but I only got two. I love them, we put one in our living room and one out on the balcony. It's so cool. I also picked up two outdoor pillows for $3; that was an amazing shopping trip.

I still haven't cut the price tag off the items because I still can't get over the great deal I scored! AWESOME!!!! Happy Shopping to you!

Soccer Parties

2010-07-14T08:30:00.001-04:00

Just in case you are having soccer withdrawals let me post about a soccer party we had back in May when Inter de Milan played in the European Championship game (Fer correct me if I'm wrong) and WON! We had an Italian themed party since we were rooting for Inter.

We made Panini and Caprese Salad, had breadsticks and followed up the meal with Tiramisu sounds like fun huh.

Cookbook Review: Martha Stewart Cupcakes

2010-07-13T08:08:00.002-04:00

We were invited to a BBQ this past Fourth of July and I contributed by whipping up some Red Velvet Cupcakes with Red, White and Blue Sprinkles on top. They were major YUMM-OO I got the recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes Cookbook. They were easy to make, came out great and were very tasty.

Finally I have an audience for my "cooking shows"

.... And the Winner is....

2010-07-12T08:53:00.005-04:00

32 TEams, 32 Stories - Can you believe it's over? A month of Soccer (almost everyday) a month of excitement a month of listening to the Vuvuzelas and now it's over. The only good part is that we won't hear those horns anymore but other than that I know there is some sadness in our household. Fer LOVES soccer and the world cup is IT for him, so now he'll have to return to regular soccer matches or re-watch the world cup games just a few more times. This world cup had some really exciting games and the part I like the best (about all these final games) is getting together with friends to watch the games it's always more exciting being surrounded by people who are just excited to see a team win as you are.

So that's it and Spain is the winner - Congrats to them and now we will return to our regularly programed lives. :)

Happy 4th of July

2010-07-02T16:07:00.003-04:00

Have a GREAT Fourth of July Weekend. Stay safe and enjoy yourselves. We're planning on relaxing, having fun, relaxing some more and hopefully I'll catch up on organizing and sharing all my photos from our recent trips.

Enjoy.

[this picture is the view from our apartment in Miami on the 4th of July, pretty nice, huh.]

TGIF: Vamos Brazil!

2010-07-02T09:30:00.001-04:00

Today begins another weekend, should be a good one. We're kicking it off already at 10:00 am with the Brazil vs. Netherlands game!

Go Brazil!!!

Saw a Really Good Movie Last Night

2010-07-01T14:17:00.004-04:00

Have you seen this movie yet? It's Complicated with Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, it's GREAT, so funny. I totally recommend this movie to everyone it's so funny. I would love to have Meryl's house and Bakery as well from the movie. :)

Cookbook Review: Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals

2010-06-29T11:00:00.001-04:00

I have had this cookbook forEVER and it's one of the cookbooks I go to time and time again. Just the other night I made Spaghetti Carbonara and realized I must share this book with everyone.

This is such a yummy recipe and I could eat it everyday if it wouldn't make me gain 100 lbs in a month. So for now we'll just have it from time to time when we're in the mood for some serious comfort food.

Do you have this cookbook? I've had it forever, what do you think about it?

FYE

2010-06-28T12:00:00.002-04:00

I have come across two really good blogs lately and I thought I would share them with you. I love people that share their real life projects with the blogging world; it inspires me to do similar or the same projects at home and I always appreciate when they breakdown the projects step by step.

Here they are:

Home to Three Duncan Boys

Shopping Candy

Happy Friday

2010-06-25T08:00:00.001-04:00

Enjoy the green open spaces of summer! Have a great weekend.

Wine Review: Gaucho Club 2007 Malbec

2010-06-24T08:00:00.001-04:00

Might as well start reviewing different types of wines that we've tried :) And YES I'll take samples if anyone wants to send me some to review. :)

We recently tried this Vino The Gaucho Club Malbec when we made our skirt steak and chimichurri meal the other night. It was very yummy just how I like Malbecs; strong but not abrasive. Has a good body I guess you would say. Malbecs in my opinion pair very well with red meat so this was a good pairing. I've had better Malbecs in my lifetime and I was also a little disappointed that this wine did not last longer than two days even though I vacuum sealed it each night. Now I know you may be laughing to yourself... why would a wine not be drunk in at least two days if not one night ... well Fer and I have had a bit of a cold this past week so it was a one glass a night maximum this past weekend, but I've had some wines last a good 4 to 5 days while being vacuum sealed so that was to bad. So chalk this up to a pretty good wine and a cool wine label.

On to the next bottle now. :)

Samba Flavor - Check them out

2010-06-23T08:30:00.001-04:00

Let me introduce you to Samba Flavor
Samba Flavor is a small business (soon to be big!) started by two friend of ours here in Atlanta (also recently from South Florida like us) that is specializing in making Authentic Gaucho Style Chimichurri and catering events with delicious food made with a Brazilian twist.

They have recently started selling their Chimichurri at the Green Market in Piedmont Park and have had so much success that we are all jumping for joy for them! Chimichurri is a steak sauce originally from Argentina and when done right (like Samba Flavor) it's made with fresh ingredients. I've tried several different Chimichurri sauces and none of them compare to Samba Flavor's even the one's at my favorite Argentian Restaurants in Miami. I'm so excited for them and wish them much success in their new endeavor. If you'd like to purchase some of their delicious products why don't you (if you live in the Atlanta area) check them out at the Green Market in Piedmont Park or go to their website and pick up some of their sauce online.

Here's a photo of a delicious meal Fer and I whipped up this past weekend. We made Black Bean Cakes, (as featured in a previous post) Brazilian Cheese Breads and Skirt Steak topped with Samba Flavor's Chimichurri Sauce - major YUMMOO.

Cookbook Review: Emeril's 20-40-60 Fresh Food Fast

2010-06-22T14:22:00.003-04:00

This past weekend I tried a recipe for Black Bean Cakes from Emeril's latest cookbook 20-40-60 Fresh Food Fast and they were DELICIOUS and easy to make by the way. They were from the 40 minute section of the cookbook but they didn't take that long at all to make. They turned out just as Emeril described crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. YUMMO. I really like that idea of organizing recipes by the amount of time they will take to make them it helps when deciding what you want to make. I highly recommend trying out this recipe and serving it as I did by setting the black bean cakes on top of some guacamole and putting some tomatoes, cilantro and a dollop of sour cream on top. :) ENJOY

Happy Summer!

2010-06-21T08:00:00.003-04:00

In honor of the first day of summer I have changed my blog banner to include some pictures from our recent summertime Road Trip. I hope you all have a great summer and may the long summer days last forever!

Happy Friday

2010-06-18T08:30:00.001-04:00

Wondering when I'll have time to actually go thru all my pictures from our recent Road Trip. This is a collage from just one part of our trip. Need to make more time for blogging.

Hope you enjoy your weekend! I'm sure there will be some more soccer for us. :)

Scenes from the Weekend

2010-06-14T13:55:00.000-04:00

As expected it was a busy weekend FULL of soccer. :)

And so it begins...

2010-06-11T08:45:00.002-04:00

Are you ready for the World Cup 2010??? The Burton household is on cloud nine with all the soccer excitement going on, first game starts at 9:25am this morning.

This is one of the many stadiums (pictured before remodel) that will host the games in South Africa.

What's your predictions who will go home with this baby? The US??? That's who I'm rooting for. ;) Enjoy the games.

everyday food challenge

2010-06-10T08:00:00.001-04:00

I saw yesterday on the Martha Stewart Everyday Food Blog that a fellow blogger is hosting his own challenge of making at least one recipe once a week from EVERY issue of the Everyday Food Magazine. One of my favorite magazines as well. He has every issue - I'll have to check I think I do too. I'm really going to enjoy watching/reading his posts as he progresses thru this culinary journey and it may inspire me to come up with my own cooking challenge. You can follow along with Mike over at his blog, click here. Enjoy.

Savannah: Legends of Golf Weekend

2010-06-08T08:30:00.001-04:00

I can't believe that I haven't posted about this short little getaway to Savannah we took back in APRIL! I'm totally slacking lately - can you tell I'm enjoying the summer and the warmer weather. Well a few...weeks/months ago Fer was invited by the Westin in Savannah to attend the Legends of Golf Weekend and luckily I was invited too. :) It was an awesome weekend and just a little side note the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa is rated one of the most romantic hotels/resorts in the U.S., I agree. It's a really nice place and for all the times we've been to Savannah this was a whole different perspective of the City, literally from the other side of the River than we're normally on. As soon as we arrive and checked in a the Westin we were greeted by the most friendliest people and showered with gifts - what else could one ask for?

Fer and I are not golfers but since we were there for the Legends of Golf Weekend I thought I should take a few pics of the actual event.
Quiet!
Then of course we had to make our way around town in between relaxing at the Westin and attending all the fabulous breakfasts, lunches and dinners we were attending. We walked down to the City Market area of Savannah and saw this new water installation they put up, looks really fun and similar to Centennial Park in Atlanta.
and here's the MAN!
It wasn't a very sunny or warm weekend but what can you do - we had fun just the same. We made a trip to The Crab Shack again - fun place but we'll probably move on to other options in Tybee Island next time we go to Savannah.

And to wrap up the weekend here's two photos that show the view from our room. It was a really nice weekend.

Thanks Fer (and the Westin).

VineDog Weekend - Three Sisters Winery

2010-06-04T08:19:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago now Fer, Zico and I went up to the Three Sisters Winery for their Vine Dog Weekend Event. It was so much fun to take Zico up there he thoroughly enjoyed it. :) We love Wine, We love the Three Sisters Winery and the scenery there and we love Zico so it was a perfect combination and a really nice outing. Here's a picture of Zico and I preparing for a photo in the winery.

Here's some of the beautiful scenery at the Three Sisters Winery.
Working on getting Zico to pose for a picture by himself and practice for the photo he was going to have taken to be put on a wine bottle. See the use of treats... he'll do anything for a treat.
Fer and Zico, such a nice picture with the vineyards behind them.
and TA DA Zico posing for a beautiful photo, I believe he's deep in thought here. :)
He's really enjoying the day.
And here's the final product. You had the choice of putting the wine label on either a white blend or a red blend. We chose red as you can tell. I think the picture came out amazing. We had such a good time that day. The Three Sisters Winery in Dahlonega, GA is a really nice winery to visit. The people are so friendly, the winery is beautiful and the wine is delicious! What else could you ask for? a close up.
and if you know anything about wine you'll know that Zico's wine fits in just right in between these other two bottles. :)
They are having another event this weekend, we're hoping to make it up there for it. It's the Georgia's Wine Country Festival and it should be a really nice event as well.

Enjoy the weekend and enjoy a glass of vino during it. :)

Beach trip with Zico

2010-06-01T13:40:00.000-04:00

Enjoyed another great trip with Zico Biscuit - this time we finally took him to Savannah, GA. Here's some pictures from Hilton Head Island - more to come as usual. Hope you all had a great Memorial Day Weekend.

Happy Friday!

2010-05-28T10:00:00.000-04:00

I hope you all have a great weekend and take some time to stop and smell the roses! Happy Friday.

And the Winner is?

2010-05-27T09:02:00.004-04:00

Congratulations Lee on becoming America's Idol
but for me this was the best part.

Bret Michaels and Casey James singing Every Rose has it's Thorn on AI!

Who will Win?

2010-05-26T09:00:00.001-04:00

Who do you think will win tonight? This year I'm not rooting for either contestant more than the other I think they're both good and will be happy with either becoming the NEXT American Idol. We'll have to see!!!

Travel and Photography

2010-05-25T08:30:00.001-04:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, Fer, Zico and I just went on a two week road trip from Atlanta to Montreal, Canada with a few stops in between. One of the stops was New York City. I really love that city! Here's one photo from the day and there will be MANY more to come. Stay tuned I have a lot of blogging to catch up on.

Did you watch?

2010-05-24T08:00:00.002-04:00

I am SO happy and impressed in Bret Michaels I have been a fan and an admirer for YEARS and the dedication and loyalty he showed to this project/task of becoming the Celebrity Apprentice and fighting for his charity was AWESOME!

CONGRATULATIONS BRET on becoming Donald Trumps NEW Apprentice!

All the best to you.

Scenes from Baltimore, MD

2010-05-10T21:13:00.000-04:00

Scenes from Charlotte.NC

2010-05-10T21:06:00.000-04:00

Road Trip 2010

2010-05-10T07:39:00.001-04:00

We're on a road trip! So looking forward to every destination on our journey. Stay tuned for updates. Hope you all had a good weekend.

Asheville, NC (Trip to the Biltmore Estate)

2010-05-03T21:17:00.011-04:00

Easter weekend Fer and I hopped in the car and went to Asheville, NC to the Biltmore Estate for a little weekend getaway. It was a beautiful weekend and a very nice drive up there thru the Blue Ridge Mountains. The house is amazing I definitely recommend it for anyone wanting to go and hasn't gone yet. It's so neat to see how these people lived years ago and how the house is still maintained to this day.
You will feel like you have go to Europe yet you are in the Southern States of the US.
It was the first weekend of the Flower Festival at the Biltmore but since it has been such a cold winter in the South there weren't to many flowers already blooming, I took pictures of whatever I could.

This is what you see when you are at the house and you look back towards the parking lots wouldn't you just love to be able to run around in that grassy area, like the Vanderbilt's kids did.

The mountains are amazing! I could so live somewhere with this view.

There is a winery on the grounds of the Biltmore Estates and this is in the greenhouse... good use of corks and wine bottles, huh.

Here's Fer waiting for our winery tour.

This picture was taken in downtown Asheville. It's a very artsy area isn't this picture cute.
These were in the same store as the previous picture I can't remember the name of the store right now wish I could because I want to buy all these lights.
It was a really nice weekend good to be away and in a country setting. A little tip if you travel to the Biltmore if you go on their website and find the hotels that they recommend staying at and the hotels they offer package deals with, that what we did and we saved a good amount of money doing it that way. So enjoy yourself if you ever make it to the Biltmore or if you've been I'd love to hear what you thought about it.

Two Thumbs Up Movie Review

2010-05-03T09:00:00.001-04:00

Over the weekend we watched this movie "Best in Show" I can't believe I had never seen it before because it was HILARIOUS! A must see for anyone doesn't matter if you have dogs or not but of course if you do you can laugh at all the extremes you could go to with them and even see yourself going to. So put that movie in your queue next time you're looking for a good laugh.

Happy Friday!

2010-04-30T10:35:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday. Here's another beautiful spring photo from our trip to the Biltmore on Easter weekend that I STILL need to blog about!
Have a great weekend.

Wine a little... makes you feel better.

2010-04-29T09:59:00.001-04:00

Well I am still totally overwhelmed with work, but wanted to share the latest addition to our home decor! A brand new (from Pottery Barn Outlet) wine holder/bar/rack. Isn't it awesome! There is so much I want to share with you all lately but just haven't had ANY time to sit down and blog, but hopefully this weekend will allow me a few minutes to get organized and get back into the blogging swing... I miss it! Hope all is well.

So what do you think?

Week in the Life: Thursday, Friday and Saturday

2010-04-25T09:26:00.002-04:00

This week in the life week has been very busy for me and not that that's an excuse but for me this time it's just been about finding a single picture from each day that represents the day.

Thursday: Mr. Zico Biscuit in heaven chewing on one of Fer's soccer socks.

Friday: We arrived in Savannah to be guests of the Westin during the Legends of Golf weekend. And we're totally enjoying it.

Saturday: A quick peak at the Legends of Golf Tournament.

Today/Sunday: We are wrapping up our weekend and heading home, it will be sad to leave this weekend behind.

Week in the Life: Tuesday and Wednesday

2010-04-22T09:00:00.001-04:00

This Week in Photos is VERY simple so far... I'm hoping to step it up a bit from today on out and I think that will be possible, but we'll see. :) In the meantime here's the Week in Photos Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday Fer came home from a long trip (long to me) to Savannah where the OFFICIAL inauguration was held for the Efacec Factory. It was months of work, hard work on his part and I am so happy to have him home and hope that he can relax a bit now.

Wednesday ... we had a friend come over for dinner and polished off a bottle of wine we had picked up from our trip to the Biltmore a few weeks ago. YUM.

Hope you're week is going well. We're almost to the weekend.

Project Wednesday: Picture Wall Reveal

2010-04-21T10:16:00.002-04:00

Finally my picture wall project is complete and I have photographed it to post here. I was totally inspired by this post by Ali proabably a year ago, so when Fer said he wanted more pictures of our families around the house I jumped on the opportunity to create this "headboard" of photos above our bed. Of course you can expect more of these type of photo walls to pop up around the aparment for sure.

I bought all the frames from Ikea (disregard the fire alarm above the photos) and printed them out on my home printer using Picasa - I printed them all in Sepia tone to go along with the tones of our room.

I love ALL of these photos and they make us smile everytime we look at them!

Art, Love, Family, Happiness.... I can go on and on.

Happy Wednesday. I hope this project inspires you to do something similar in your home.

Week In the Life: Monday

2010-04-20T14:00:00.001-04:00

Here's Zico Biscuit patiently waiting for his Daddy to come home. Notice he's ON the windowsill. So cute

These pictures were taken with my cell phone so their no the best quality but they will do... ever feel like this when you drive home from work. LOL Zico had a very playful day at doggie daycare.

Martha Stewart = Art

2010-04-20T08:00:00.001-04:00

Personally I think the covers of Martha Stewart Living are works of art, have you seen the lastest issue it's stunning. I love the summery colors, someday I will have a wall dedicated to Martha Stewart Living Magazine covers.

Easy like Sunday Morning... Week in the Life Begins

2010-04-19T08:00:00.002-04:00

Today begins "Week in the Life" over on Ali Edwards blog - I love following along with her whenever she does this, this time I'm just going to follow along by posting pictures on my blog, I'm not up for creating a scrapbook this time. (but again you never know...)

Here's some pictures from Sunday Morning... baking scones.

Good Luck on your Week in the Life Project if you choose to accept the mission.

It's My Life....

2010-04-16T08:57:00.002-04:00

Went and saw these guys last night in concert, the show was AMAZING.

Sorry for the Absence

2010-04-15T08:43:00.006-04:00

Sorry for being so absent lately. Work has taken over my life, this is how I feel:

I hope to get a lot of things sorted out this weekend and be back up and blogging by Monday. :) In the meantime I hope all is well with everyone.

Happy Friday!

2010-04-09T09:01:00.000-04:00

A seashell scene out on the balcony to remind me of the beach and the ocean.

and I moment I couldn't resist capturing this morning, you never know where you will find this little guy. I hope you all have a wonderful and sunny weekend.

Project Wednesday: Photo Wall (almost done)

2010-04-07T12:19:00.002-04:00

Didn't have a chance to take a picture of the final product yet, but it's awesome. Just haven't had a chance to get the proper lighting in the room yet...
Once I post the final product I'll tell you where my inspriation came from. Hope you're having a great Wednesday.

The Biltmore - Weekend Getaway

2010-04-06T10:02:00.000-04:00

Fer and I went to Asheville, NC this past weekend to see this...

We had such a great time as usual and this weekend the weather was spectacular, finally! More pictures to come from our weekend getaway.

TV Lineup

2010-04-05T10:00:00.000-04:00

I don't know if you've been enjoying some of the new TV shows that are out there lately like I am but FINALLY there is some good TV on TV! I think since Seinfeld there has not been a sitcom that I have been crazy about until this new show Modern Family came out this year. It's hilarious, absolutely hilarious! It's about three different families but they are all related. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should I think you'll like it. It's on ABC on Wednesdays at 9pm.

The other show that I love right now (and funny it has something to do with Jerry Seinfeld) is called the Marriage Ref. It's so funny, they deal with real life silly arguments of married couples and there is a panel of celebrities that judge the problem and vote on it. Of course usually the celebrities have had their own messed up marriages which makes it even more funny. You've got to catch this show some time it's just good stuff.
The show that I still really enjoy and am sad that this is it's last season is Ugly Betty I love the scenes of New York and all the fashion.
Have to mention the Celebrity Apprentice, it's the usual Donald Trump train wreck but I always get hooked on it and there's even more of a reason this year since Bret Michaels is on it. :)
The only one of my favorite shows that is really stinking this year is American Idol. I love the show, but this year for me it's just not good - what can we do. Maybe this will be the last year and that's fine.
So that's my favorite TV shows this season, how about you? What are your fav shows... do you enjoy any of these shows.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T08:57:00.000-04:00

I hope you all have a beautiful day and a beautiful Easter. I think for most of us... summer/spring has arrived! Yes!

These are some pictures I took of flowers at the Biltmore in Asheville, NC - more pictures from the trip to come soon.

Wine Club

2010-03-31T08:00:00.001-04:00

We joined a wine club the other day at nearby shop called WineStyles and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. You pay a monthly fee and then you get that same amount in wines to try - so it seems like a good deal to me. :) I let you know how the wines are when we try them. Cheers

The Counter

2010-03-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

This weekend we went to try out a new burger joint and let me tell you boy was it GOOD! Probably one of the best hamburgers I've had in a long time. YUMMY!

We went to the Counter Burger in Roswell, GA - I would say it's a upscale, yet casual still, Hamburger Restaurant. The concept of the restaurant is that you can "build your own burger", which is fun and stressful (LOL) at the same time. There were so many options and of course your want to build the best burger. You can also just order an already decided on burger if you'd like off the menu. I went kind of mainstream with my selections grilled onions, provolone cheese... and coleslaw. :) Didn't want to go to nuts at first. But you can order things like grilled pineapple and fried egg as well for your hamburger.

Here's a picture of the bar area of the restaurant. You can choose beer from the tap or some vino if you'd like. Sounds good to me. The decor is pretty cool too.

Here's a burger with a fried egg on top. Yummy.

Here's a Counter Burger.

Hope you have a chance to check out this place some time soon, it was really good!

Put Some South in Your Mouth

2010-03-29T22:09:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture of a good ole Southern breakfast Fer and I partook in over the weekend. Pancakes, bacon, biscuits, fried chicken and grits. YUM.

Happy Friday: Pour yourself a Margarita

2010-03-26T07:15:00.000-04:00

Here's a few shots of the making of some Margarita's we made a few weeks back. The Margarita recipe is from a good friend of mine and I dare say they are the BEST you'll ever have! Cheers to a great weekend.

Entertaining: It's all in the Details

2010-03-25T07:24:00.002-04:00

I had a few friends over last night for Pizza and to watch American Idol. We had a great time and it reminded me that entertaining does not have to be hard or stressful, that it can be very easy. But it also reminded me that it's all in the details. I picked up some delicious bread from our neighborhood bakery along with some yummy olive oil from Napa :) and set the table ready for everyone when they arrived. We had a great time.

Rosemary Foccacia (sp?), YUM.

A very simple place setting.

Project Wednesday: The projects are piling up

2010-03-24T08:05:00.002-04:00

The projects are piling up, hope to have some time to get to them soon. :) I hope you all have a great Wednesday.

Blog to Business Workshop: What I learned

2010-03-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

About two weeks ago now I participated along with many others in Marta's Blog & Business Workshop that she shared with us everyday for one week on her blog Marta Writes, it was an awesome workshop and I learned a lot. Of course I would love to turn my blog into a money making machine but now is not the time for that, hopefully some day though. What I took away from her workshop was some good information about how to streamline your blogging and surfing of blogs along with the most important item u be u and I'll be me. :)

Something I had not used before but I am now using and find REALLY awesome is Google Reader. I love to surf a lot of people's blogs each and everyday for inspiration in all kind so things from photography to cooking and I was loading up my blog with all kinds of links so that I would always know when one's blog was updated, I still have a good amount of blog links on my blog but now I have many more neatly tucked away in Google Reader. It's a really cool and helpful tool and I know there is even more for me to learn about the reader and how I can organize it even better but for now I put in a whole bunch of subscriptions to blogs that I like to follow and every day I check in to the reader and read away all in one place. :)

Another thing I recently started using, which isn't' really because of the workshop more because the blog was not showing up properly in Internet Explorer is Google Chrome, just another web browser but for those of you who use Blogger - it's really compatible and much better (I think) thank using IE.

I did a little sprucing up on my blog over the weekend (hope you like the improvements) and learned how to center a widget which I'm doing cart wheels over! If you haven't checking out this blog CoffeeShop Photography you should she teaches you a lot of cool things on how to improve your photos thru Photoshop and also how to manipulate blogger to do the things you want!

So that's it for the moment. I hope you have a great day!

A Week in the Life: Mark your calendars

2010-03-22T08:00:00.002-04:00

Mark your calendars because Ali Edwards is planning to do another Week in the Life Series starting on April 19th as always I will follow along, as I have with the December Dailies - but this time I will only be posting the pictures on my blog and not creating a scrapbook... or at least that's what I'm planning to do. :) We'll see how it evolves.

I'm looking forward to the project and I hope you are too.

Mark your calendars because Ali Edwards is planning to do another Week in the Life Series starting on April 19th

Happy Friday: Cheers

2010-03-19T07:34:00.000-04:00

one more photo from our tour of Georgia's Wine Country. I hope it brings a smile to your face and that you have a great weekend!

Backyard Traveler: A Day in Georgia's Wine Country

2010-03-18T14:00:00.001-04:00

So... this past weekend a group a friends and I went on a day trip to Georgia's Wine Country which was designed by us to be a tour of some of the wineries in GA and a birthday celebration for Ana and I, both of us turning 30-something. :) I came up with the idea and created the invitation and then the plan was in place.

The plan was to visit 5 wineries and then have dinner at the last one, well the days itinerary changed a little while in progress but it was totally fine and I think even better in the end. It's nice to have a plan but also have the freedom to go with the flow.

Here's a picture of the back of the invitation and the winery lineup was as follows:

1. Wolf Mountain Winery
2. Three Sisters Winery
3. Frogtown Winery
4. Blackstock (we actually skipped this one because we spent to much time at the Frogtown Winery but that's fine now there's another one to go back and check out)
5. Montaluce Winery for tasting and dinner

All the wineries were great of course some had better wine than the others but they were all very nicely decorated and the people that worked at all of them were so friendly.

We had the privilege of being served wine by the wine maker himself at the Frogtown Winery, which that part made it really cool.

Here's a picture of the front of the Frogtown Winery.

Here's a picture of the vineyards owned by Frogtown.

inside the winery. They guy behind the counter with the white hair is the owner/wine maker.
We stayed at the Frogtown Winery for a late lunch, because we really were hungry by that point in the day. We had a delicious chili (both white and red bean) served with cornbread and Cesar salad.
Three Sisters Winery
Here's a picture of the vineyard area of the Three Sisters winery
Three Sisters Winery & Vineyards
Here's a picture from the Montaluce Winery - this one was really beautiful. Please notice that I posted a new photo album along the left hand side of my blog if you're interested in seeing more pictures from the trip.
I think this sign sums up the whole day, the experience and our lives. :)

Project Wednesday: Hanging Shelves

2010-03-17T11:30:00.001-04:00

We purchased some hanging shelves from Ikea a few... dare I say months ago where once they got home just sat, to the point of me thinking ... "I think I'm just going to return these shelves we're never going to hang them and it may not work out how I wanted it to to begin with..." type thing. UNTIL this past Sunday when I looked a wall in our guest room in a different light (LOL) and thought hey I think the shelves will work on this wall instead... so I broke out the hammer, the drill and unwrapped the shelves. As usual things are not always as easy as they seem and of course that always holds true when doing something around the house... but I did it! What an accomplishment. The process wasn't that hard once I finally got my head around the plan at hand and the end result is awesome (in my book). What do you think?

Here's how it went... my starting point was figuring when the printer/copier/scanner is open how much clearance do I have to hang the first shelf, so that's where I made the measurement for the first shelf; very scientific and visionary. :)

Then between the first one from the bottom and the middle one I measured a foot distance and between the middle and top one I measured 6 inches so I could put some tall on both the bottom and top shelves.
Here's a close up of the fine craftsmanship!
and TA DA here it is all decorated and ready to go... awesome job, huh!
I am very proud of myself if I do say so! :)
So for all those projects you have laying around the house that you think will never get done.... there is hope!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T08:00:00.001-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! May you have the luck of the Irish today and everyday!

Georgia's Wine Country

2010-03-16T07:55:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday a group of friends and I took a trip (about an hour away from ATL) to Georgia's Wine Country where we visited 4 wineries. We all had a GREAT time, I have not had a chance to finish my "report" on our trip yet but look for it along with many more photographs on Thursday. Till then CHEERS.

{This is a picture of the vineyards and winery at Frogtown.}

New Blog Banner

2010-03-15T08:00:00.001-04:00

courtesy of Georgia's Wine Country, here's some photos from the weekend in my new blog banner, details to come!

Happy Friday

2010-03-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

Finally whipped out the paints and did something artsy. Have a great weekend.

Puerto Madero (Miami, FL)

2010-03-11T08:00:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite places to visit when we lived in Miami and now when we go back to "vacation" is a deli/bakery/restaurant called Puerto Madero, named after the Puerto Madero area in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This place and the food they serve is awesome.

We went for brunch during our last visit and as usual it did NOT disappoint, everything is so tasty. Take a look at all the desserts they have to offer.

Hmmm Cafe con Leche...

Besides delicious baked goods you can also find great cuts of meat and sausage as well as Argentine condiments.

Have the orange juice if you ever go, it's freshly squeezed.

Sandwich Miga. YUM

Tostada... yummooo.

If you are ever in the South Miami area of Florida I highly recommend checking out Puerto Madero, I'm pretty sure you'll love it.

Here's the address:

12879 North Kendall Drive
Miami, FL 33186

Birthday Dinner and New Entry for the "Guide"

2010-03-10T07:27:00.008-05:00

Monday night for my birthday dinner, Fer took me and Miss Harshal out to a cool Wine Bar/Restaurant. You can imagine that it was totally up my alley. :) The place is in Buckhead and it's called Cellar 56, it's awesome!!! The wine selection is great and the food is amazing!! We dined on things ranging from a cheese platter to short ribs and every dish was outstanding. Here's some photos from the evening.

Isn't this a cool idea the menu is attached to a cut up wine crate, I love it!
On Mondays you can take a Wine World Tour, you get four different wines to taste for $10. They opened a special bottle of wine for us that day because they heard it was my birthday, the staff was awesome there.

the white wine portion of the tasting...

and now onto the red, cool photos huh.

they gave us a complimentary dessert for my birthday :) which was a white chocolate bread pudding and it WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!

Pot of Chocolate. Mmmmm

Me and Miss Harshal.

There's the man!

I totally recommend you trying out this restaurant whenever you are in ATL I don't think you'll be disappointed. I can't wait to go back!

B&b Workbook is available

2010-03-09T14:00:00.001-05:00

Incase you were following Marta's Blog & Business workshop last week over at Marta Writes, I wanted you to know that she made the workshop/workbook available online to download. I did and it's great!

Cookbook Reviews....The Joy of Cooking

2010-03-09T07:50:00.001-05:00

{my cookbooks}

I am going to start a new series on my blog called Cookbook Reviews where I will review all the cookbooks in my possession. I have so many cookbooks, I'll say that I am a cookbook collector :) and more than half of them I have not used once! Not good, so I'm going to start this series (hopefully have a post regarding a different cookbook at least every Tuesday) to force me to begin going thru my cookbooks!

I will begin with one of my "go to" cookbooks The Joy of Cooking. Do you have this cookbook? Is it one of your go to cookbooks? A co-worker recommended I purchase this cookbook SEVERAL years ago and one of the reasons it was recommended was because of this Pumpkin Bread Recipe pictured below. It's such a good recipe, I make it as often as I can. I love this cookbook it has such great recipes and for me it's such a good reference tool. I look up all the time things like what should the temperature of meat be when it's cooked... to certain levels of doneness, etc. I definitely couldn't live without this cookbook in my repertoire.

Birthday Dinner

2010-03-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

Some scenes from Ana and my birthday dinner on Saturday. We went to a restaurant called Canoe located in Buckhead and let me tell you the dinner was amazing along with the company!

Here's a picture of the smoked salmon dish that was out of this world!

A REALLY good Zinfandel!

Happy Birthday to ME. ;)

Happy Birthday to Ana!

We had such a nice evening. Stay tuned for more pictures birthday pictures to come. :)

Happy Friday: View of the Ocean

2010-03-05T14:00:00.000-05:00

I wish you all a happy weekend and hope you enjoy this beautiful photograph I took while we were visiting with Susie and Eddie in South Florida last week. This weekend we will be celebrating my 3?th birthday, I'm looking forward to having fun and spending time with friends. I'm sure I'll have some pictures and stories to tell you next week. :)

Attending the Blog & Business Workshop

2010-03-05T08:00:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned earlier this week Marta from the blog Marta Writes is hosting a Blog & Business Workshop over on her site, I just had to share how awesome it has been. I am learning so much this week and most of all the statement she made, something that has been her motto for awhile... u be u and I'll be me. :) I love it! Isn't that how we should all be... just worried about ourselves and our loved ones that surround us and not what everyone else is doing. I can't believe how much time we can spend worry about things that are out of our control and non of our business.

I feel the tone of her workshop is gentle but very real while her and the experts she's asked to join the discussion are sharing with us what works for them in regards to time management, starting their businesses online and getting noticed. It makes me realize I don't have to do everything at once and when you do try something new give yourself the LUXURY of doing it well. Isn't that nice.

So I had to chime in again about her workshop, if you haven't visited her site yet then hop on over there and check it out you can still read thru the week and see what she has to say, you'll enjoy it.

Trip to Miami, Zico's First

2010-03-04T08:00:00.001-05:00

Here's some photographs from our recent "family" trip to Miami, FL. Look at this little guy, who wouldn't want to take him where ever you could. Zico Biscuit sporting his little "good dog" polo from Old Navy, can he be any more stylish?

Okay let's hop in the car now and head to South Beach to ride around and check out the beach. What's Zico thinking here... Wow I've never seen a place like this before.

{Zico riding in the car down Ocean Drive}

Here we go, let's hit the beach!

{Zico Biscuit on South Beach. Miami, FL Feb. 2010}

Here's a pic of some of the cool scenes along Ocean Drive

{one must have a Mojito while in South Beach, right?}

I love this photo, it our "family portrait" in shadows on the beach.

{me and the little guy}

Some of the typically beautiful scenes from South Beach, I tell ya for me you just can't beat the ocean.

Later on in the day we took Zico over to Lincoln Road where all the cool dogs go for a stroll. Of course Zico was the hit of Lincoln Road that night everyone was stopping us asking questions about him and petting him, he is such a sweetheart.

{Zico and Fer in front of the Britto store on Lincoln Road, do you think Zico was the model for that piece of art in the window?}

{this picture was taken inside the clothing store called All Saints on Lincoln Road, it was a really cool store and had all these awesome antique sewing machines as decorations}

So there you have it scenes from the Burton's Family Fun in the Sun Trip to Miami.