28 February 2008

Sock Monkey

I don't pride myself on being very handy with a sewing machine but I am pretty proud of my latest creation. I went to Target the other day to find a pair of socks worthy of becoming a sock monkey. I used a pattern online and this is what I got!!

I wasn't sure how Jonah would like this strange toy but he immediately took to wrestling with it. I guess it was a success. By the way, I purposely gave it two different colored eyes. I thought it added to the vintage/home-madeness factor.










There are a ton of great socks at Target if you're interested in trying out this little project. It took me about 2 days to finish. There was a lot of hand-sewing involved with all the appendages.

15 February 2008

Bon Appetit!

Our Valentine's was superb yesterday. Jon took me to 26.2 (a marathon store) and had my stride and foot impact analyzed so I could get the right running shoe and then bought me a killer pair of shoes. What a great present! I call them my magic shoes because they're gold and they have this small gold detail that looks like something out of Lord of the Rings. Here's a picture:

I'm excited to get out there and see just how magical they are (come on...dream a little, people)!
So, in return, I slaved away in the kitchen all day. First, my friend came over and we made chocolate and caramel covered pretzels. It was messy but a lot of fun! They turned out to be quite delectable!

After cleaning up after that mess, I moved on to other things--like putting this little guy to bed. He looks beat, doesn't he? Maybe it's the crash after the sugar rush induced by the leftover chocolate and caramel drippings.

With my hands free, I finally moved on to dinner. You have to understand the situation first. February 13th is Jon's birthday so I attempted to make stuffed pork chops for dinner. They were horrible. Besides the case of trichinosis we picked up from eating raw pork, the stuffing was disgusting. We ended up microwaving the pork and scraping out all the salty, dry stuffing. You can understand now my slight hesitance in attempting another new recipe for Valentine's Day. I hadn't quite recovered from the embarrassment from the night before...or maybe I was just nauseated and tired (hey, aren't those symptoms of trichinosis?). I made a trip to the store for the ingredients and laughed as I walked into Smith's and nearly collided with a long line of men holding all the ridiculously marked up, half-dead carnations (all the roses were gone). You wanna know my opinion of flowers on Valentine's? FORGET THEM! They're so expected. I'd much rather get flowers on any random day of the week. That tells me my husband thinks about me even when it's not required! I'd much rather get a Diet Coke and Peanut M&Ms for my gift! Thanks, Honey-Babe!
So here is what I made for dinner:

This is a rib eye steak, pan-seared, over portabello mushrooms and topped with a red wine, garlic sauce. It got raving reviews! One even commented, "This is better than going to a five star restaurant!"
I hope you all had successful Valentine's Days. If you want to wow your spouse, go here and try this: http://www.gastronomyinc.com/recipes/steak_ny.htm.
The recipe is from the Market Street Grill.

13 February 2008

Past Posts Added

I just wanted to let you all know that I just added my posts from my own blog (which has been abandoned) to this one. I back-dated them so they will show up in the past. If you want to look at them, feel free. They're a little different style than our current blog.

Jonah Every Day

Here are some adorable pictures I have captured of Jonah over the last month. He is our little explorer and is constantly keeping us on our toes. We count our blessings everyday to have such a happy, healthy boy.


Mimi got Jonah new pants from Lucky.


Jonah immediately took to his model poses.




Jonah loves bath time. He eats the bubbles, splashes, and plays with all his ducks!