Toddler Pizza

I try my best to feed Henry a relatively healthy diet. But let's face it 2ish is not exactly a cooperative age. He knows enough that I can only trick him into eating healthy foods a bit. Personally, I have a little guy who will eat tons of cheese, most meat (well, toddler like meat such as nuggets (at least he will eat the Naked ones), turkey sausages, these chicken apple gouda sausages, and of course, fish sticks), tons of fruit, but vegetables? notsomuch.

Anywho, every toddler loves pizza and I've discovered this quickie 'pizza' I can make for him that makes me feel better than picking up a good ol' Hot N' Ready!

Ingredients:

One Arnold's 100% whole wheat Sandwich Thin

pasta sauce (I use Classico Florentine Spinach & Cheese - yay! he's eating a bit of spinach!)
One or two quick cook turkey meatballs
Italian shredded cheese

I just pop open the sandwich thin, spread on some pasta sauce, add some chopped bits of turkey meatball and then cover the whole thing with cheese. I usually set my oven to 350 degrees, but it's never done heating up by the time I'm done. I just pop it in while the oven is heating and it only takes about 5 mins. Just enough to get the cheese good and melty = happy toddler temperature ;-)

So, it's not rocket science, but HDog loves it and it's fast, which only adds to it's awesome factor!

A mix of things

Sorry, I realized I have been MIA blogger for the last two weeks. I have constructed the occasional post in my head, but have been busy with summer so it just hasn't happened. So, here I present to you, a completely random mix of things.

Very excited to see that iconic designer, Jonathan Adler, is being featured on Gilt Groupe on Wednesday of this week! Feel free to leave me a note or email me if by some odd chance you don't belong to Gilt and would like to. I'd be happy to send you the referral!

I read lots of other blogs and must share - I made this fabulous Watermelon Bombe as posted by Second City Soiree, only subbing raspberry sorbet for the watermelon, as I couldn't find watermelon. As for that subsitution: Appearance? A+. The darker red was so realistic! Taste? B-. I didn't care for the tangy mixed with creamy ice cream, but no one complained. I think I might try strawberry ice cream with added food coloring next time. Now I know I should have taken a picture as soon as we sliced into it. And yet I did not! Oops. Oh well. Here's picture of what remains :-) It looks a bit frosty, because we served it on Saturday night and then again on Sunday afternoon (yay for lots of visitors!). Really nice thing was that once I removed it from the bowl, all I had to do was wrap the whole hunk in press n' seal and toss it back in the freezer that way.

A bit of big (and completely unrelated) news, we have moved the HDog to a big boy bed! I did suck it up and purchase the PBK Riley bed I was eyeing and it really is the perfect fit for our space. His room did have to lose the gorgeous Land of Nod District 28 armoire ( Z was NOT PLEASED about taking it down to the basement since it weighs a ton!), but it was worth it. I will say, we had a laugh worthy episode where Henry broke out, but it's mostly been going well. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Oh and lastly, I should add that being the design freak that I am, I hemmed and hawed over his bedding. I refused to buy some crazy licensed Disney/PBS/whatever bedding. I wanted something that will grow with him and was so happy to find this Colorblock set at Target. I also went with the coordinating striped sheet set. The best thing about all of this? It includes Orange & Blue, so when Z inevitably convinces Henry that he needs an Illini room, I just might be able to add some accents and keep this bedding!

Why my parents rock: Part 2

So, while my Dad was measuring, cutting and hanging wood, my Mom and I were tending to things indoors. My mother is a fabulous seamstress and made curtains for at least one room in each of my sister & I's homes since college, crib bedding for one of my nephews, pillow covers for me, and even fabulous quilts for each of her four grandsons! Her talents runneth over. Seriously, I feel like I need to take some hardcore sewing lessons so that I can do these things for Henry someday. Though having a boy, do you think he'll be annoyed when I want to make matching drapes for his dorm room?

The big indoor project for my lovely mother? Drapes for our master bedroom. My beloved Pottery Barn Kylie Peacock duvet was transformed. You can see the before here, and the after...

And a little one to match over at the window by my desk...

A few other projects helped out by Mom's handy work...arranging the shelves in the living room:
We of course did a bit of shopping, hitting up the local garden center, Joann fabrics (to pick out the pergola fabric) and Mom was so excited to visit our new HomeGoods here in the city. HomeGoods just might be our mecca, inexpensive, unique home furnishings all packed in one store? Thankyouverymuch! Mom of course managed to pick up a few things for her own home there. The big win for me from our shopping? This gorgeous pair of lamps for the living room:

There were many other small projects, hanging pictures, etc. and of course they spent quality time playing with Henry, reading him books, helping with baths, the list could go on and on and on. We had such a fun weekend! I feel so very fortunate to have been blessed with such amazing parents!

Why my parents rock: Part 1

So, my lovely husband spends every Memorial Day weekend with a bunch of dudes in the back of a Ryder truck. All his college buddies make this pilgrimage to Indy 500 each year, keg wagon, Kaboom and Ryder truck in tow. I keep waiting for them to realize their bodies are too old to sleep on the floor of a moving truck, but so far the tradition continues...

So, HDog and I are left to fend for ourselves. We have visited my sister & her fam, my parents in Indiana, but this year, we convinced my parents to visit us.

My father, being an engineer and the son of a carpenter, is quite handy. And enjoys a project/challenge. Despite my best efforts to talk him out of it, he insisted not only in tearing down this monstrosity, but rebuilding a suitable replacement. So...here's the before (pardon the white lines, they are measurements I sent to Dad before he arrived):

The cheapos who flipped our house from a 3 flat to a SFH thought it a good plan to build the basic structure with good treated wood and then just put regular old painted lumber up top, along with the plastic lattice work. So basically the entire top layer was rotten. As in, it took my Dad less that 2 hours to tear the whole top off. It was a huge relief to get it down, as I feared falling in on us during a peaceful dinner some night!

After much discussion, we decided to just build a framework inside the existing structure. And so, in less than 72 hours with just a tiny bit of lifting help from me, my fabulous father took us from the scary thing pictured above, to this: Now, I know it doesn't look like much, but there was much measuring, cutting and hanging that went on to get us to this point (and a couple trips to the store and a rented truck to haul lumber!). Please imagine it sanded, painted and with beautiful drapes of fabric running through it! Seriously though, I've ordered this Waverly Yacht Club sunfabric:

It will run up and down in five lovely strips of fabric and then across the front, with a bit hanging down in front so we have shade as the sun sets in the west each evening. Also on it's way - this outdoor chandelier so we can enjoy dinners/parties on our patio. I might even put in a dimmer switch if I think we need it...

The light is a bit fussy for my taste, but turns out, it's kind of hard to find an outdoor light that isn't too simple, too ugly or TOO EXPENSIVE. So this is gonna have to work. Promise to post photos when it is all done!

In summary, my Dad rocks. He always does such cool things for us. I can only hope that I can be a fraction of the great parent to Henry that he has been to me.

Soon to follow, Part 2...my Mom!

Condo Flashback

I just realized we have passed the one year anniversary of purchasing our home! I know the big move day was May 17, 2008, so we haven't passed that date. I also realized I've never added photos of our condo to this blog. Hell, it started as more of a journal of my knocked-up-ness, morphed into sleepless complaints of being a new mom and of late is my ramblings about decor and fashion. Anywho.


In honor of the move from our little condo...a tour...


I particularly loved our living room! We originally painted this room more of a periwinkle color. Once the first full coat was in place, my husband pulled me aside (we had family there helping) and told me he thought it looked like a zoo! The room had so much natural light, we didn't realize how bright it would look. A mid paint session change brought us to this gorgeous dark grey blue shade. I missed how 'finished' this room looked because I know it will take time to get there in our new place.
I don't miss the kitchen! We did the best we could with the tiny space. I did like having white cabinets, but that's about all I can say about our crappy old kitchen.

Similar to our living room, I missed the finished feel of Henry's room. Probably because I had all that pre-baby nesting energy and had every tiny thing in place before he was born. That and now that he's a crazy toddler things are never in their place! OCD me tries hard to let this go on a daily basis...


Ah, onto the master bedroom and bath. I was never over the moon for our bedroom, but did love some elements of it, for example the chandelier (sniff, sniff, I was a bit sad to leave it), our custom built bookcase bedside tables and I'll always have a special place in my heart for all things black & white damask. The good news, if ever you have the pleasure at staying at the Heaven In A Paper Cup household, our lovely guest suite is outfitted with most of this ensemble! I admit, I'm way more excited for our awesome aqua & green master here in the new house (note to self, take better photos of new bedroom, the work in progress photos kinda suck!).


Our two bathrooms from the condo represent such a labor of love since we lived through their complete gut rehabs. I spent many an hour researching attractive, yet cost effective options for tile, vanities, etc.

The last two rooms are the guest room/my office and the guest bathroom. I'd say the guestroom represents the least complete room in the condo. I always wanted to put a big collage of 8x10 photos above the daybed, but I never put in the time to make it materialize.


Finally, the tour ends with the other renovated bathroom. We actually had this one converted from a half bath with a weird closet into a full bath. In the end I loved this bathroom even more than our master! The mosaic tiled custom shower with the adjacent tiny linen closet turned out absolutely amazing. And who doesn't love a pedestal sink?! My favorite piece of both bathroom redos? The tiltable beveled glass mirror in this bath, that could totally pass for a Restoration Hardware piece, but I found it at Lowe's for $70!

I did love our five years living within earshot of the Cubs seventh inning stretch and loved our little condo, but I must say, I don't miss it!