Cobb Salad

I have a yummy recipe for you today!

Cobb Salad

(adapted from Saveur)

This one is perfect for a hot summer night when you don't want to turn on your oven.

I started with a recipe from Saveur, but adapted it to make it my own.

For the Salad:

Romaine lettuce

Spinach

hard boiled eggs

bacon

grilled chicken

avocado

pepperjack cheese

olives

kosher salt

fresh cracked black pepper

FOR THE DRESSING:
3⁄4 cup canola oil
1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1⁄4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
3⁄4 tsp. dry mustard
1⁄2 tsp. Worcestershire
1⁄4 tsp. sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper,

 I love this recipe because you can add or substitute to suit everyone.

I don't like tomatoes, so I leave them out.

My kids love olives, so we add them.

I don't love blue cheese, but need some flavor, so we used pepperjack.

With the dressing, I use this recipe and I love it.

It has a lot of vinegar so expect that zing when you take a bite.

For my kids we used light ranch instead.

For Nate to take to work, we drizzled his with Persian Lime Olive Oil and Pomegranate Balsamic Vinegar with a little salt and cracked pepper.

Future Major League

Saxon started t-ball last night!

I was a little worried because we had missed all of the practices while we were in California.  I didn't want him to feel lost.

It turns out, I had nothing to worry about.

He did great!

In fact, t-ball went much better than soccer.

I thought every kid loved soccer, but Saxon didn't love it.

He felt like it was a lot of running and not a lot of time with the ball.

With t-ball, every kid gets a turn at bat, and that was exactly what Saxon wanted.

It was so fun to see him have fun (and I got his cute little baseball cleats at Ross for $7...great deal!)

 Bridger was dying to play, but he's only 2, so he has a while before he can play.

So, I signed him and Saxon up for the 4/5 year old soccer team this fall.

I know...I know...

But he's big, and he's coordinated, and they don't keep score, so he can't do any damage, right?

It's just so hard to keep telling him that he's not old enough.

I just hope Saxon doesn't tell on us :)

Do You Know Where You Come From?

For the last little while, I've been thinking a lot about where I come from.

I'm lucky enough to have all of my grandparents still around.

But it makes me sad to think that one day, my kids will consider my grandparents

"ancestors".

I don't know if they will ever remember them, or anything about them.

So, I've been really trying lately to gather stories and information about my grandparents before they are gone.

So...I put together this picture collage on our dining room wall.

It's the past (my grandparents and their families)

The present (me & Nate)

The future (my kids)

I just started by collecting frames at thrift stores and painting them or staining them to match.  I put my family (me & Nate & the kids) in the middle, and just built around it.

As I started asking for pictures from my grandparents, I discovered all kinds of pictures and stories that I would have never known otherwise.

This is my Grandmother...Beth.

She is my mom's mom.

She is an artist...a painter.

This picture was taken when she was 16.

This is my Grandfather on my Dad's side, John, as a baby with his family in Germany.

He moved to the United States from Germany when he was a child.

This is my mom's dad, my Grandpa Roy.

He built a hotdog shack on Venice Beach when he was 18 and his whole family worked at it.  This is him with his parents.

This has been a really fun project, and an adventure.

Hopefully, one day, it will be a treasure for my kids.

It's still a work in progress, but I love how it's going so far.

Do you know where you come from?

Bake You Happy

On one of our last few days in California, Brooke and I decided to try out

 Bake You Happy

in Valencia, because some of Brooke's friends work there.

I was excited because "Bake You Happy" won Cupcake Wars on the Food Network, and I love Cupcake Wars!

Can you tell by the grins on these faces that we were not disappointed :)

Every cupcake is $3, so the cute girls working there made custom cupcakes for my boys that were covered in rainbow sprinkles.

Poor Bridger fell off his stool and his cupcake splatted, frosting side down, onto the floor.

He was devastated!

Those same cute girls gave him a new cupcake with sprinkles and made everything better.

The best part is that each day they have different flavors, so you can always try something new.  Plus, they make vegan, and vegan/gluten-free cupcakes.

That's important for us because my mom can't have dairy (so vegan for her) and my grandma can't have dairy or wheat (so vegan/gluten-free).

We ended up getting vanilla for me, peanut butter/chocolate for Brooke, cream soda & toffee for my brother Ryan, vegan vanilla for my mom, and vegan/gluten-free strawberry for my Grandma.  

Is your mouth watering yet?

Mine was just thinking about it!

Yum!!!

I have a thing for cupcakes.

I try out gourmet cupcake places where ever I go.

Some of my favorites are:

Sweet Mandy B's in Chicago, IL.

Sweet Tooth Fairy in Provo, UT.

The Chocolate in Orem, UT.

Whodidily's in Montecido, CA.
and now

Bake You Happy in Valencia, CA.

My sister-in-law started a cupcake business with a friend called

Cup my Cakez.

It's all vegan, all natural, and I can't wait to try them!

We weren't able to meet up while I was there, but next time I go, they promised me cupcakes :)

For Memorial Day, my mom and I made these red/white/blue cupcakes.

I LOVE fresh fruit and cream cheese frosting.

It seems to tone down some of the sweetness.

My favorite cream cheese frosting is:

8 oz. cream cheese

1 stick butter

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar.

Do you have a favorite cupcake bakery or cupcake recipe?

I'd love to try something new :)

Craftiness is Not Optional Giveaway!

I am so excited today to be doing a giveaway on

Craftiness is not Optional!

I love Jess's blog and I made a

"Keep Calm and Sew On"

sign for her and one for a giveaway.

Head over to her blog to enter for a chance to win!!!

My Retro-Momma Makeover

Since we were down to our last few days together, my sister Brooke and I decided to re-make one more thrift store dress.  This is the before:

(you may not notice, but it has this fancy matching belt :) and it's a little big.  It's a size 14.  Brooke says not to look at sizes because you can always make it work).

So...here we go...

First we chopped it off.
All of you seamstresses out there might cringe, but we didn't even use sewing scissors.  We just grabbed out kitchen scissors and chopped away.
Notice the mismatched buttons...ha ha.
We cut the dress off right in between a set of buttons so that we didn't end up with a button in a weird place (like too close to the top or bottom).

And the after:
Dress: thrifted $1.95
Cardigan: thrifted from Buffalo Exchange $7
Shoes: "Wanted" from Marshall's $15
Jewelry: downtown L.A.

belt: thrifted $3

Brooke had to convince me to buy the dress because I thought it was so ugly.

Once you pair it with a few cute pieces, it turns into something completely different.

The waistline of the dress is actually really low, but Brooke said you would never notice, so we belted it up high anyway.  And, the orange in the cardigan is a different orange than the dress, but it all still works.

Brooke spent only about 5 minutes on my hair and made it look so cute!

She put a little braid on each side and scooped it up into a messy bun, then curled the stray pieces that hung down.  Super easy and cute.  I love having ideas to pull my hair up and get it out of the way, but still look like my hair is "done."  I'm always pulling my hair up in the summer.

Check out this ring of Brooke's that I borrowed...

It's from a store called "Girl Talk" and it was $2 for 3 rings.

Such a great deal!

This little one was dying to be held, so here I am with my baby :)

We matched in orange.

Summer Wish List

A few things I'm wishing for this summer:

Darling "Gondola" Dress

http://www.shabbyapple.com/p-955-gondola.aspx

No snag elastic hair ties

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lizziestarr?ref=seller_info

A great bag for all of my summer stuff.

(sunscreen, sunglasses, camera, water bottle, etc.)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/62857224/la-pomme-bicycle-flap-large-dark-yellow?ref=sr_list_7&ga_ref=auto&ga_search_query=summer+tote&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade

Reusable Swimmy Diapers.

Our public pools out here require babies to wear a disposable swim diaper and a reusable one.  These ones look super cute and comfy :)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/74365985/snugs-swim-diaper?ref=sr_list_6&ga_search_submit=&ga_search_query=swimming&ga_page=3&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade

What do you want for summer?

Thrift Store Dress re-make Tutorial

Here's the before:

notice the matching belt, shoulder pads, and awkward length?

First we cut out the shoulder pads, took off the belt (Brooke is saving it to go with a different outfit), and Brooke measured where we wanted the length to be.  We left a little extra so I can hem it when I get back to Utah.

Brooke laid the dress on the floor and just cut straight across.

Then I tried it on and Brooke evened it up and cut the loose strings.

Next, measure the length you want the sleeve...

Then lay it out and cut, cut, cut...

And here's how it turned out:

dress: thrifted $2.95

jewelry: all Brookie's (including a Harry Potter time turner)

shoes: swap meet $10

belt: American Vintage $5

That's it.

Easy, right?

I can't wait to wear this somewhere!

I have a second dress that we're about to alter later this week :)