Snow Day(s)

A smattering of photos from our snowy adventures. A bluebird sky day after grey skies and wind is the best way to get outside and enjoy the snow, even if was a bit chilly.  

click through for photos of our snowed in days.

4/52

well we survived the blizzard. It snowed and snowed and snowed but the flakes were fluffy and light so we did not have a problem with power but we certainly did have a lot of shoveling and thankfully our snow blower roared to life so we were able move the snow off of our driveway. So we all geared up headed out into the snowy wonderland. 

huzzah...for snow and for the snow blower. 

warm and cozy watching an earned movie for filling up his sticker chart (a great piece of toddler incentive).  

I have finished painting the Lemon's room and the carpet has been put down. For Christmas my Mom gave me a chair that once belonged to my Dad. It is one of the most comfortable chairs, especially with a new cushion. Oliver loves to play in the room, heck he plays in the Lemon's room longer than on his own.  

With Matt out of town we were sweetly invited over to a friend's house for a playdate and dinner. Oliver picked out the flowers at Trader Joe's and proudly waited at the door to present them. heart melted.  

swim class! He is doing much better and was a lot more positive this past week. 

much better! more smiles and a lot less tears.  

cutest, sweetest lunch date out there.  

post snow play hot chocolate with the marshmallows on the side, not in the cup. 

Gearing up.

We are gearing up for a possibly historic blizzard that is going to roll in tonight and stay dumping up to 30" of snow through Tuesday night. We have had such a mild winter so far so it seems to be inducing a bit more panic than normal. Take for instance my "quick" run to Trader Joe's last night.  I quite literally needed four items. That is all. Well as soon as I pulled into the parking lot I knew I was in for it. It was jammed. And then I parked and walked up to the front door. I did not even need a cart but thank goodness because there were no carts. I have never seen that. Stepping inside Trader Joe's was more like stepping into a crowded bar on a Saturday night. So. Many. People. And again let's remember I needed four items. I made it through mostly unscathed and headed home.    

home at last to do a little research for the perfect winter storm soup. I think i'm going with a homey minestrone soup. stay warm and safe everybody. 

Love it: Hawkeye Huey

I came across this article a couple of weeks ago and it instantly made me smile. What a sweet boy with an awesome name; Hawkeye Huey, who is traveling in his father's footsteps (literally). His father is a National Geographic photographer and he gave his son a Fujifilm Instax 210 to document what he saw around him as well. It is fun to click through Huey's Instagram account and see the world from a four-year old's perspective. I think this story stuck a nerve with me because I love to take photographs and I also love that Oliver enjoys snapping pictures with my camera and my phone. I have even loaded up a 35mm film camera and let him go wild one day at Drumlin farm. It is so fun to see what he comes up with and deems worthy of a photograph. 

3/52

Ready to roll. Oliver and I have been taking advantage of the sunshine and mostly mild temperatures as of late to get out and about on the weekends and the past MLK holiday. It is times like these that I really appreciate where and how we have chosen to live. We are able to just pick up and go to a museum or have lunch in Harvard Sq.  I love that Oliver is so readily exposed not just to the hustle and bustle of Cambridge but also the history and architecture of the area. I mean just look at the brick sidewalks, iron gates, and classic Neo-Georgian river Houses which depict the expected image of ivy classicism. He may not appreciate it all now because it is basically his back yard but I hope these are the types of experiences and images that stick with him. 

Click through for more pictures.

Taste it: full flavored turkey burgers

Oh turkey burgers. They get such a bad rap. Usually when ordered at a restaurant they are a bit bland and dry but if done correctly then they are full of flavour and not at all dense. This recipe is like eating a mini Thanksgiving dinner in one bite. We ate them with sweet potato fries to round out the Thanksgiving feel. 

Gather:

4 Tablespoons of butter
1 small apple, I used Honeycrisp
1/2 red onion, diced; the other half sliced
1 rib of celery, diced
1/3 cup of breadcrumbs, I used Panko
1 lb. ground turkey
1 egg
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 Tablespoons of Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons of poultry seasoning, I used Bell's
sharp white cheddar
canned cranberry sauce
4 sourdough or french bread rolls

Do:

Heat large skillet over medium heat, melt butter and saute the onion, apple and celery until soft. season with salt and pepper. stir in breadcrumbs and transfer to a bowl to cool.  Mix the ground turkey, egg, parsley, mustard and poultry seasoning into the bowl. Form into patties. Meanwhile, saute the sliced red onion in olive oil until caramelized.

Heat skillet again over medium heat and add olive oil. Cook patties for 8-10 minutes and at the end top with cheddar cheese to melt. While the burgers cook, toast the buns. Once toasted assemble the burgers; spread the buns with cranberry sauce and add the burgers, top with caramelized onion, press to secure and cut in half to serve. We ate them with sweet potato fries, yummy!

adapted from this recipe. 

Love it: a newfangled way to melt chocolate.

So we sort of had a chocolate problem at our house, I know it's terrible really. Let me start at the beginning. For Christmas, Oliver was doing some holiday shopping with me and we stopped into the Lindt chocolate store to get some stocking stuffers. Well Oliver spotted the five inch tall chocolate Santa and Frosty and bless his heart that is what he wanted to get Daddy and I for Christmas. So sweet, literally. So he proudly "purchased" his items and we wrapped them up for our holiday morning. Now I'm not going to lie, I am a chocolate fan but more of the dark chocolate person and these five inch high figures were smooth, milk chocolate. So they have sat untouched in our kitchen. 

Fast forward to this weekend. A big football game for us New Englanders. And we are doing a bunch of appetizers for dinner and I thought, hey chocolate dipped strawberries would use up the milk chocolate! And then as if by fate a truly brilliant article popped up in my inbox from Food52 about melting chocolate with a hair dryer! Ummm can we say amazing? Yes. So when Oliver got up from his afternoon rest we brought the hair dryer down to the kitchen and voila! melted chocolate with no double boiler or burning it in the microwave. Plus Oliver thought it was hilarious. 

smooth and melty and ready to be dipped!

sweet strawberries dipped in repurposed Santa chocolate, melted with a hair dryer!

we had extra chocolate so we dipped a few graham crackers too.

2/52

disgruntled artist. this photo is shocking to me on so many levels. Oliver looks so grownup. His feet look massive (they are) and I see more boy than toddler! He was very proud of his painting work and he loves helping out for the Lemon (that's what we have nicknamed the baby). I am very proud of my bug taking on his new responsibility with gusto.

swirls and twirls.  

all filled in and only a little drippy.  

click through for more pictures. 

Love it: Etsy Artist - Oh, Albatross

"keep it simple"

One of my resolutions for this blog is to share a bit more of the fun and interesting things that I find on the internet. There is so much stuff and junk but when you find something that you love, you should share it or at least that is what I believe. 

First up is a whimsical Etsy store, Oh Albatross. The shop is a bit of a medley of antique finds, handmade dolls and animals, and these fabulous vintage modern buntings. I love the buntings because they are graphic, simple and they also remind me of an contemporary conceptual artist, Jenny Holzer. They would be a fabulous addition to a nursery, living room, or an office space. 

"find your flow"

"oh happy day"

1/52

ok so here we go again! I'm jumping on the 52 Project band wagon again. I know that some people use their beautiful DSLR cameras with every shot and I think I will try to really focus on one photo a month but the rest will most likely be off of my iphone. because let's be honest that's turned into my primary camera. 

So let's start with the cuteness above. Oliver was "reading" The House at Pooh Corner to me after a rest. I love that he is in a full bed for moments like this because I climbed in to his snuggly bed and we chatted and he "read" for upwards of 45mins. Recently I have found myself thinking about all the newness heading our way in a few months and I feel like I want to mentally record these sweet quiet moments with my bug. 

playing a new matching game that Ollie got for xmas.

chilling out with a sweet bday gift from Auntie Liz.

and before the holidays completely wrapped up I got away for a ladies day out with Abby and Liz (we have know each other 25 years or even more!) crazy, huh? 

52/52

whew. another 52 project completed! some images better than others but that is fine by me. it is a good weekly challenge that I hope to keep up in the coming year even with, especially with all of the changes coming our way. I certainly hope everyone will have a wonderful, beautiful and peaceful 2015. 

click through for more pictures of our end of year/start of year shenanigans. (and you will see a lot of the new Boston Red Sox hat, it's a new fav).