Sneak peek

I have had many requests for pictures of our nursery. My plan is to do a before & after of the nursery once all the details are in place. As we still have a few elements to figure out & create it will still take us a while to complete all the detail before I document it photographically. For those of you who are asking for pictures, here is a little sneak peek. I first want to apologize for the iPhone pic. It was all I had with me upstairs in my craft room, and as the stairs are not really my friend these day, I was not wiling to run downstairs for my point & shoot.

The pic is of an acorn I made out of felt for a mobile that I am altering because I was not able to find a mobile that fits with our theme, and color scheme. I bought a second hand mobile, and I removed the animals that came with the mobile, and converted them into cute farm animal toys, by removing their cords they were hanging from. Now I am making new objects out of felt to coordinate with our nursery theme & linens. I hope it all comes together soon, and can share all the details with you.

Amazing Quotes

There are time when I wish I had a better memory, even pre-pregnancy. I love fabulous quotes. Not quotes by writers, historical figures, or politicians, although some are amazing like one of my faves from Winston Churchill "Attitude is a little thing that makes a BIG difference". I have a love for real life regular people quotes. As I have mention in a previous post writing & grammar are not my strong points, so when people succinctly encapsulate a feeling or experience I relate to in an amazing quote. I am always so speechless, which for me is amazing. Today there were three quotes I loved.

The first was from a blog I follow Alphamom. She described diapering as toddler with this quote
"trying to change a toddler is sometimes more like wrestling with a greased pig in a pile of mud"
If you have ever tried to diaper a toddler, this is an amazing accurate quote.

The second quote and I think my fave of the day was from a friend of ours Jeope "Awesome" Wolfe on facebook of all places. Who was congratulating another friend of ours Christine on her recent engagement. He gave one of the most amazing descriptions of engagement & the final commitment of marriage in a way I have never hear before.
"I loved being engaged! The beginning of a most excellent adventure!"
I loved this statement. If you could see Jeope & his equally lovely wife Kerry together you would know that this truly came from his heart. I love hearing positive statements about marriage in a world full of negative ones. I could easily write a longer more extensive angrier rant than my recently posted pregnancy rant, about "advice" people chose to tell you prior to marriage. None of these statements comes close to how incredibly positive, & heart warming his quote was.

The third was amazingly also on Facebook. Friends of ours Stacey & Joel just a baby & was excited that amazingly they were able to sleep for 6 hours with a new born. A contact of hers made the most amazing statement about baby's, & there unpredictable sleep patterns.
"Quit writing about it. They know. They always know. Don't even think about how good sleep is, either. They know that, too. Babies are stealth-like-sleep-ninjas.... they know when you get complacent and they will steal your nights. And days. No more jinxing!"
Being that I am an expectant mother & expceting to not get much sleep, & just became a Aunt to my super cute niece who has not always given her parents the same gift of sleep, this was an hilarious & accurate quote.

Always Read the Recipie or Happy Accident

Last Friday Al had suggested that we have dinner at Bistro 71/4. One of our all time favourite restaurants. We managed to get a reservation at the chefs table. A much suggested experience if you can. While eating dinner we started talking about the restaurant Blog by Chef Alexander Svenne. Turns out there are two blogs his side the previously mentioned blog & her side by Danielle Carignan-Svenne written from the point of view of running the front of house.

Chef Alexander at times post recipes on his blog & Al had mentioned a Baked Apple Pancake recipie he though sounded really tasty. The next day I checked out the blogs & decided that the recipie sounded like something I could handle. The best part was that I had some local apples from a family friend's to use.
I did take a few liberties. I decided to use a 91/2 x 91/2" pan, becuase it was what I had on hand, & I used more apples than the recipie calls for. I wanted to use all the apple, because they were getting old, & I didin't think that a few more apples would spoil the recipie, as they are on the bottom of the pan & not mixed in to the pancake mix. In the recipie you have the choice of using apple pie filling, or make your own. I decided to make my own apple filling using the suggested brown sugar, butter, & cinnamon sauteed in a pan with the sliced, peeled, cored apples.
After the apples have softened, and the brown sugar & butter have melted spread apple mixture in the bottom of your chosen grease baking pan.

Always Read the Recipe:
Now for the part where I screw up the recipie. I read over the recipe several times. On the internet, after printing it, before starting the recipie, & as I made the recipie. My problem is that I have the type of brain that fills in what I think recipie reads vs. what the actual recipie reads (oops!). So in my special interpretation I mixed all the ingredients that are listed for the pancake part of the recipe together including the sugar & cinnamon that were to be reserved for the top of the pancake once it was done. Being that I have made pancakes & cakes before I decided to try it out with the extra ingredients.

I poured the pancake mixture on top of the apples & baked it until (as the recipie states) it was puffy, firm and golden brown. I found probably because of the extra apples, the smaller pan, and the extra ingredients to bake a little slower int he middle & I had to add a few more minutes to make sure it was baked through.

The happy accident:
The result was a yummy fluffy cinnamon pancake with tangy cinnamon apple bottom. We didin't have the ingredients to make the Cinnamon Cider Syrup, so we use maple syrup. It was so good that we ate the whole thing. I will definitely make this recipie again. It was easy, yummy, and a nice treat for a weekend breakfast. I think it would make a nice dessert, especially toped vanilla icecream & the Cinnamon Cider Syrup drizzled over top.

Pregnancy rant in 3...2...1...

First I want to thanks everyone for the helpful advise & suggestions. I love helpful advice.I'm getting tired or advice like "just wait it will never be the same" or "get your sleep now because you will never get sleep after the baby" that... one gets a DUH!!! The best has been "buy your gadgets now" What gadgets???? We aren't gadget people.

I still don't understand why parents & women don't support each other rather than cutting each other down & making a huge comparison game out of parenting. No wonder why children are self conscious, from the very moment they are born they are continuously judged by others,& often don't meet others standards. Why can't we just let babies grow at different rate, talk at different ages,& walk in their own time.

No one gets a gold metal at their child first birthday. It's not a game it's your life. More importantly it's your child's life.

That feels better. I have been holding that in since the moment we made our pregnancy popular knowledge.

I will get off of my pregnancy soap box now.