Now thats some Mamma Jamma!

 You know when its summer in our house because you can smell it...the jam is simmering!! The sun has ripened the strawberries to the fullest and summer is on its descent....its time for some jam.

Minus this past year and a half, I gave the previous 7 years of my life to school. I had no life or time except for what it allowed. Baking, cooking, and having a personality outside of a studious one was pretty much out of the question. If I got 3 hours a sleep a night I considered myself lucky....does anyone hear that violin?

Well, a person gets used to that kind of routine. Then graduation happens and the blurring motion that surrounded you before comes to a complete stop and your left standing there saying, now what?

I'll tell ya.

LIFE!! WHOOOOO HOOOOOO

It takes some time to realize that the light at the end of the tunnel is indeed not a train but actual sanity!

You get hobby ADD especially bad because you go so long with doing NOTHING that you want to do EVERYTHING. Then the day comes when you stop doing 100 things and your like, hmmm what do i like to do?

Well, besides getting more time with the fam, I took up cooking and baking. (check me out now!, I actually know there's a difference! in your face burnt mac n cheese!!)

I remembered back to just before my master's. The hubby and I would pick a fun recipe and cook it. We would put on some sinatra or jazz, grab a glass of wine, throw on the pots and pans and have some fun.

Those memories are what made me decide to start cooking. I loved every minute of the INSANELY messy adventure.

I have baked bread, not from a bread machine but from actual dough that rises ya'll, sticky buns, french apple tarts, fresh peach cake, peanut butter jelly bars, orange and cranberry scones and well, you get the idea.

sticky buns

For our holiday thanksgiving at work everyone baked a dessert to go with the lunch that was catered and I made pecan bars dipped in a chocolate ganache. These are heavenly. They are made with honey instead of karo syrup and about a million pounds of butter. (I don't even like pecan pie but LOVE these.)

There's actual meal type food in all this baking/cooking too. I've cooked mediteranean, german, seafood, chowders, breakfasts, etc etc etc. I cook all the sweets because I like the way they look but I would have to say that one of my all time favorites to cook and to eat is the strawberry jam. Mmmmmm Mmmmm, summer goodness.

The house smells like strawberries and I'm sure I do to after all of it. Just call me Lotso. (Lotso, for you all out there that still have whatever you want on your tv besides cartoons and are not on the DL, is from Toy Story 3 and is "Lotso huggin bear that smells like fresh strawberries!!" only,...don't hug me)

Now when you think of strawberry jam you probably think of some red gelatinous gunk with seeds (or you hope they are seeds) spread throughout its mixture. I found a recipe that makes the most heavenly strawberry jam with none of the above.

This jam really should be wearing a halo and singing  "aaaaaaaaaaa". Heck I'm writing a hole blog on it so it must be decent.

It is preservative free, pectin free (so apparantley it is safe for vegans..I wouldn't know, I'm a meat and potatos kinda girl) and is made of fresh strawberries, blueberries, apple, sugar, and a final touch of grand marnier......simply decadently delicious.

It is more of a preserve than of a jam. It goes beautifully on belgian waffles, sinfully on ice cream, and somehow a finishing touch on toast.

I gave it out last fall and have had endless requests since. I have spent the final weekends of summer cooking more to hand out again this season. It is lip smackin, welch's grape juice tongue tickling good kinda stuff.

Did i mention i'm a foodie. I know you couldn't tell.

2 cents from hunter

It's a friday and if you read this blog AT ALL you know exactly where we are heading...Ronald McDonald Friday...(its for the kid for all you haters that just went blllllaaaaa!)

We are in the drive-thru at Mcdonalds and I'm doin my ordering schpill of  "yes, a happy meal for a boy under 3 with a cheeseburger, french fries, and milk..and no i do not want an apple pie, smoothie, or coffee." (Yes, I admit that it's sad that I know what item they are going to try to upsell to me...)

I have just finished ordering and the woman says "Can I get you anything else?", I say no and as I begin to pull through to the next window Hunter leans forward in his car seat and yells as loud as his little 2-1/2 year old body will let him.. "AAAAND AAAA CUUUPCAAAKE!!!!"

Where's Waldo?...

Saturday morning i stumbled down the hall sipping my freshly brewed cup of joe expecting to see hunter playing. What I saw was like searching the NY Times Crossword on Sunday. I had to search in the toy room... for our son...

 Hee Hee...Eventually, I found our lil Waldo. Can you?
 
      

I think i just found what we are going to do today.

Happy Saturday!

  

The Mechanic with No Car

To buy something and have it mock me with its pre-made, not quite what i wanted but i have no choice but to take it and zip it design or create what i love.....what i want...myself.....that is the question...(or should the question really be, "When can i fit this in?")

If you know me, and you do,  you are saying this in unison right now.......Shae??...buy?? uh no, DIY.

Ok, so I have been designing our house since we moved in 3+ years ago. It's still not finished. What is finished however are my work projects, my masters', spring cleaning, our menu for the week, and occasionally...only when its absolutely neccessary....laundry....(Folding only. Putting it away is an entirely different and ongoing story.)

Hmm, do i see a trend?

This industry is addictingly contagious. (Yes, i meant and typed, addictingly contagious, don't you speak Shae yet?)

Yes,  they have beautiful things in stores. Yes, i have access to private selections not for public purchase but you forget the one unspoken cardinal rule of the design/architecture industry....It's just not the same if you don't design/make it yourself..........period.

The mind and the intent are there but somehow our house sits...waiting and wanting to be a completed design.

Don't get me wrong. We have definitely done a ton of hot list items. We moved into a stuck in the 70's peach box right on down to the gold painted outlet covers. (yep, 'fraid so.. not even gold plated but gold ...painted..outlet...covers.) and by now the cabinets have been refinished, walls painted, a new fence installed in the backyard, trees planted, hydrangeas growing, and so on and so on. Now i know i'm not reinventing the wheel when i say this but "owning a home is exhausting."

It's not that i have designers block or anything. i've got a few ideas for some of the areas.

Here are two ideas for the living room:

and the Master bedroom:

but then of course i still want to get the floors done, counters replaced, backsplash tiled, fixtures changed, and did i mention the farmer's sink in the kitchen?...i want one.

Now if i did NOTHING after work, then i'm sure the house design would begin to resolve itself but do I do nothing??.... uh no surely not....I am also attempting to study for my license exams, trying to find creative ways to keep my lawn/flowers from evaporating in this God Forsaken Heat, and planning hunters 3rd birthday. The stores of course have PLENTY to choose from for a birthday but there are none that i just LOVE and know very well what i can do myself so what must i do...WELL OF COURSE Design and Create it. See for yourself his 2nd birthday.....

Mmmmm Hhhmmmm and first was similar only a circus theme.....

I'm thinking a Superhero red and blue theme this year with capes...Guess now i gotta learn how to sew...See what i mean! and the worst part is.... I LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY CUSTOM DESIGNED, STAY UP ALL NIGHT TO FINISH, CUT MY FINGER, PAINT IN MY HAIR, STAINED MY CLOTHES, PUT MY THANG ON EVERYTHING I DO, CUSTOM DESIGN.

It's a sick disease i tell ya. It even goes right on down to the grocery list..uh huh you read it, ...not even the family grocery list on its plain 'ol white, mocking me piece of paper that's just gonna get folded, wrinkled, and coffee dripped on as I balance it in one hand and keep hunter from nose diving off the cart in the other while i dig in the diaper bag for wipes and find a phone thats ringing, is safe.

told ya.


I am in the process of designing coordinating recipe cards.


Mmm hmmm i know, i know. (Your dealing with a very sick woman here.)

The more and more I type and see a growing list of Design ADD items, the more and more I am fearful for our house and must stop typing before i decide it all has to be finished tonight. I find all the time in the world for everything else i want to do except the few things i need to do.

The facts all point to this. I am now like the mechanic with no car.

P.S.
Fingers crossed i get to some of these rooms one day soon! (before house #2 comes along) or before i decide to take an autobody class.

P.S.S.
I'm sure they have anonymous classes for us Do It Yourself ADD's out there. Heck, forget looking, let's just get together and start one of our own......just kidding