Yikes! It's Wednesday. Again.

I seriously need to get a grip on my to do list. And start checking things off it. Here are some things going on in my life.

1. Craft Beach Retreat. Totally excited, and a bit scared. Rachel asked me to teach a class for her retreat, and I'm a little nervous. I was checking the event blog today, and the photos are amazing. I'm in love with the location, hotel, and hello, Urth is catering? Love their bobas. I hope they are bringing bobas. If you watch Entourage, then you know the characters are at Urth all the time. I never see anyone famous when I'm there. But I digress...

2. Me and mine went to visit the La Brea Tar Pits this past weekend. Uhm... Can't say that I needed to see that. Big pools of tar. Gurgling. Uhm... That said, I'm still taking everyone who comes to visit me there. You've been forewarned. And you know who you are.

Don't worry. That is just a re-enactment using a highly trained stunt mastodon.

3. We also went to The Counter for burgers. Uhm... Not the best. But not the worst. On a burger scale, it's better than 5 Guys, less than In-N-Out. But way more expensive than both. However, their sweet potato fries and onion strings were some of the best I've ever had though. So I'd definitely go back for those.

I was going to take a photo of the yummy sweet potato fried and onion strings, but locusts attacked before I had a chance.

Burgers were tall. Very tall.

4.  Here are some layouts I created for Jillibean Soup.

Don't freak out! Yes, I used flowers in a layout. And I made those!

A little layout about my trip to visit KP in NY.

5. What my scrap room looks like right now. Ugh. Not the most productive place.

And I'll leave you with that lovely image burnt in your retina. Sorry. Hopefully, I'll be all organized by next week. And I'll share another photo of the space. Next week. Hopefully.

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Weekend In Photos: The Washington DC Edition

As we count down our days on the East Coast, the kids are getting more and more frantic about the things we "must" do before we move to the left coast. On top of their lists: eat a last cheesesteak at Tony Luke's, eat at Banana Leaf, eat at Classic Diner, and go to Washington DC. To eat. Of course. These are my kids after all.

So off we went to DC. Although I was sneaky, and managed to get a girls' day out for myself with Cindy and Keisha. So fun. And so bittersweet.

Keisha was pretty determined to get some Georgetown Cupcakes. They have their own TV show! Who knew! Well, apparently everyone but me. They had moved from their teeny storefront on a small side street to a much larger location on M Street. Again, I had no idea. But we could tell where it was located from the ginormous line wrapping around the block. NUTS! No, we don't love cupcakes that much. Especially after having some really nice pizza for lunch. Add to the fact that it was raining and hailing. So we ducked into Paper Source, and bought more paper goods than we needed. Then into Lush and got very nice smelling bath bombs. Then, and only then, we went to brave a cupcake line. Not at Georgetown Cupcakes. Not at Sprinkles (I mean, one can get Sprinkles anywhere else in the country, even if they are good.) But we went to Baked and Wired, which was pretty amazing too. Plus the place was just cute. And the lines were shorter. I'm going to recommend the Fresh Strawberry, the Cherry Blossom, and the Razmanian cupcakes. Not that I ate all three by myself...

And then we had to say goodbye. I'm going to miss Cindy and Keisha so much. We will see each other again. But the get togethers won't be as spontaneous anymore.

My family and I stayed overnight, and we ate ate ate. We did take a little eating break to go visit the zoo (they had baby lions) and say hi to the pandas. And visited Mt Vernon. Of our 20ish trips to the DC area, we had never been to Mt Vernon. It was about time. So fascinating to see where George Washington lived. And to learn more about his accomplishments. Everyone knows about him as the father of our country, but I knew very little about the farmer and husband.

And now we are back to school, work, and packing. At least I won't have to clean the house this week. YES!

Food paparazzi!

Crazy line just for cupcakes. Look past the end of the line. It wraps around the corner down the other street.

We had to settle for a photo on the outside.

Inside Baked & Wired. So cute. So yummy!

Stumptown coffee? Please. And yes, I tipped really well.

RED VELVET! It was good too.

Love those girls!

There was this and a huge thing of Korean bbq. The kids ate it all. I had to fight for a few scraps.

Those cherry blossoms. So pretty. So allergy inducing.

I couldn't stop thinking "someone needs to wash those panda butts."

Love how they pose nicely for photos.

We do love Thai food. Can you tell?

A super nice Japanese lady forced us into a family photo, and then praised my children to the skies. I love her already. Oh, that is George and Martha Washington with their grandchildren Washy and Nelly behind us.

The mansion at Mt Vernon. The other building to the right is the kitchen.

And thank you for the love re: house sale and Jillibean. You guys are awesome. I mean that.

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Talking About Food

Something I like a lot: food. I'm writing about quiche today at the Mosh Posh blog.

This quiche in particular. Broccoli, peas, and pesto. Yum.

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Weekend in Review

And another weekend went by. Fast. But this time, I actually have something to show for. I spent half of  Saturday wrapping mandus (Korean dumplings) and wontons to be squirreled away. Love having food in the freezer for those nights I can't face going out again, but can't quite muster enough energy to create a whole meal.

I also finished my Mosh Posh projects which I'll post tomorrow (see them here right now). Got the gerbil cage cleaned (well, I got the kids to do it. But surely I can claim that as an accomplishment in itself.) And found a clarinet for my middlest.

Today is the oldest's birthday. TWELVE! Holy cripes, when did I get old enough to be the mom of a twelve year old? One more year, I'll have a teen in my hands (more like slipping through my hands?) Meanwhile, I'll enjoy his still-sweet personality. His choice for dinner? Cracker Barrel! Apparently, I haven't taught this kid well.

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Happy Monday. Sort of.

Truth is, I woke up kinda cranky. But that's my fault for going to sleep super late last night, staying up to knit while watching HBO (ohmigosh, True Blood is amazing this season! Can that teeny town have any more supernatural creatures? My town is so boring. Just yoga moms like me. Meh.)

I spent the weekend scrapbooking and cooking (therefore eating). So that was pretty dang good. I'm currently working on my middlest's elementary school directory. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only graphic designer parent in that school. But I might be the only parent who's fessed up to being a graphic designer. Therefore, anything that might be considered "design-y" gets pushed my way. Yearbooks, fair logos, fund raising calendars, slide shows. My talent never ceases to amaze me. (I'm being sarcastic here, by the way.)

So. In order to stop my whining, and to cheer me up, here is something I made this weekend.

I had gone to the store to buy some fresh mozzarella, but I was distracted (as usual, ayi!) and ended up with burrata. Burrata is fresh mozzarella filled with slightly whipped heavy cream. Hellooo!?!? Can this thing be any more caloric? I prepped it the same way I'd do a tomato and mozzarella salad. And dang, that extra creamy cheese made this dish so much yummier than the usual recipe. So thank you Mario Batali for teaching me about burrata. Orange is my favorite color too.

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