Denise 365

4.1.2009 thru 4.29.2009

I’m catching up on photos, so I thought I would post all of April’s together in a single post.

 

4.1.2009. Dance Photos Are Here! Gigi’s dance photos are in. Aren’t they cute!

 

4.2.2009. Fireplace Detail. I liked the morning light coming thru the north-facing front door and wanted to photograph the fireplace in that natural light.

 

4.3.2009. Cabinet Detail – These posts are the detail on the kitchen cabinet below the cooktop.

 

4.4.2009. Morning Portrait.

4.5.2009. Fudgesicle. 

4.6.2009. Daddy and Gigi.

4.7.2009. New Sandals for my Little Girl.

4.8.2009. Easter Treats. Gianna and I made little easter treat bags to share with the daycare kids.

 

4.9.2009. Doorknob. 

4.10.2009. Fuzzy Navel Cake. Just like rum cake but with peach schnapps and orange juice. I love all things peach flavored, and this cake was totally yummy!!

 

4.11.2009. Colored Eggs. Gigi and I colored Easter eggs today. Auntie Annie taught her the fine art of using a white crayon to write on the egg before coloring, and so Gigi attempted a few designs herself. I love the little person she drew!

 

4.12.2009 – Easter Umbrella. Grandmas each brought easter baskets for Gianna, and the basket from Grandma Winkelman included a bright flowery umbrella. Just what Gianna always wanted!

 

4.13.2009 – Cemetery.  We went for a walk in the cemetery across the road from us. This mausoleum caught my eye.

 

4.14.2009 – Treadmill. 

4.15.2009. Red Gerbera Daisies. Jay picked these pretty red flowers up for me the other day. I love them!!

 

4.16.2009 – Outside Light Fixture. Bottom View.

 

4.17.2009 – Licking the Cake Batter.

 

4.19.2009 – Blowing Bubbles.

 

4.20.2009 – Stamped Cards.

4.21.2009 – Hair Appointment. This is where my money goes!

 

4.22.2009 – Warm Bubble Bath! After an evening of raking the lawn, it was great to soak in the tub for awhile. I love my new bathtub!!

 

4.23.2009 – Chocolate Milk in the Morning. In an effort to bribe Gigi out of bed at a reasonable time, I offered her chocolate milk for breakfast. Chocolate milk itself wasn’t motivation enough. She needed to have TWO straws to be convinced. 

 

4.24.2009 – Marinara. Tried a new Giada de Laurentiis recipe. Yum. 

 

4.25.2009 – Daddy Teaches Gianna How to Count Money.

 

4.26.2009 – New Recipe – Lamb Pasty. Made with leftover Easter lamb.

4.27.2009 – Stamped Cards.

4.28.2009 – Planted Sunflowers. Gigi and I planted her sunflower seed she got from the Easter bunny a few days ago. They are just starting to poke thru the soil.

 

4.29.2009 – Growing Sunflowers. Here they are just a day later – look how much they’ve grown!!

3.29.2009 thru 3.31.2009

3.29.2009 – Fixing the Puppet Show. Gigi took her puppet show booth completely apart the other day, and here Daddy is guiding her thru the steps to put it back together. It took them a couple of hours, but they did it!

 

3.30.2009 – New (Granny) Shoes. Part of the rehab for my weakened ankle involves wearing shoes with a good arch support. My physical therapist suggested Clarks shoes for me, and I ordered these casual flat black shoes. Online they looked pretty cute. In person, they look like ugly granny shoes. But they are comfortable and they help my feet and ankles, so I’ll set my pride aside.

 

3.31.2009 – Coffee Cup at Small Town Coffee Shop. I didn’t take this photo today, but I did the retouching of it today as I wanted to make an enlargement to hang on the wall. The photo was taken the previous Saturday at a small town coffee shop. As it turns out, it was one of the last days they were in business. Someday I would like to do a photo series of photos taken at coffee shops. Anyway, I really liked how this one turned out, so I wanted to fancy it up with a little sepia toning so I could enlarge it and use it to hang in my house.

3.22.2009 thru 3.28.2009

 

3.22.2009: New Recipe – Marinated Tuna Steaks. I saw this recipe in one of my cookbooks for a marinated tuna steak with pearl onions and decided to try it out. They were quite tasty! Even Gigi, who took one look at it and said “yuck, I’m not eating that!!!” liked it after giving it a try.

 

3.23.2009: New Wall Decor. I bought these wall decorations last fall with intentions of putting them in Gianna’s new room after we had moved in. We just got around to putting them up this weekend. They were a lot harder than I thought they’d be. :) Hopefully now that I’ve done one set, the next ones won’t be so difficult. She loves the butterfly decorations and was soooooo excited to have them put up on her wall above her bed.

 

3.24.2009: Gigi Cooks. Gianna wanted to wear her play apron and use her cooking toys. She even ended up using real food as she ‘cooked.’ I knew she’d eat the ham slices eventually, so I didn’t mind her playing with them. But when she asked for sugar to mix with it, I told her she’d have to pretend. It was pretty cute listening to her explain her recipe… a teaspoon of ham… a teaspoon of sugar… What she was making, I’m not entirely sure. :)

 

3.25.2009: Coffee. Nothing exciting. Just the new package of Caribou coffee Jay picked up for me today. It smells sooo good.

 

3.26.2009: Stamp Room Organization. I stopped by Target. I’ve been looking for some storage options for my supplies in my stamping/scrapping studio. I settled on these cute little green baskets – bought 8 of them that night, and went back for 4 more later. They work great on the shelf. Plus, they match the rug! I have this fun brown/celery/pink color combo going on in the room. Very girly and fun. I almost feel like a teenager!

 

3.27.2009: Sauk River Flooding. Took these photos at the park on the Sauk River in St. Cloud. It frequently floods in the spring. This is the same park where I took our family portraits in fall 2007. The water is quite high; normally, I think it sits just behind that large oak tree on the far right of the photo. Some of the railroad ties that are used on the perimeter of some of the sandy sections actually started floating away. It always amazes me to see what mother nature is capable of. Luckily, we were spared the devastation our neighbors up north experienced.

 

3.28.2009: Cooking with Wine.   I don’t remember what it was I cooked for dinner tonight… probably my drunken shrimp stir-fry. I opened a bottle of my favorite Reisling from V. Sattui, which we visited in Napa Valley last year. The best way to cook with wine is to make sure you drink a couple of glasses of it while cooking. Delicious.

3.15.2009 thru 3.21.2009

3.15.2009: Cupcake Balls. I saw these adorable little cake ball cupcake thingys on the Pioneer Woman’s blog. It’s a cake ball (basically crumbled cake and frosting formed into balls and semi-frozen to make firm) placed in a candy mold filled with melted chocolate (to make the cupcake liner portion) and dipped into colored chocolate to make the frosting part of the cupcake. So Gianna and I spent the day making these things because they are so adorable. And yummy too!

 

3.16.2009: Piggyback. Gianna learns the fine art of sitting on daddy’s shoulders.

 

3.17.2009: New Range Hood. Finally. We’ve had this ongoing thing with getting a range hood for over the cooktop. Ugh. The first hood was too big. Way too big. Not physically, but in terms of suction. The cabinets were designed to work with that hood, so we were frustrated when we realized it wasn’t going to work out. So Jay bought a new one at Home Depot that was closer to the right size. However, the way it needed to be mounted and installed required it to be done PRIOR to the tile going up on the wall. A little too late for that. So I ordered a third hood. Took two weeks for it to arrive. We finally got it installed, and it would take another few weeks before all the wiring and air intake compensation was properly set up.

 

3.18.2009: My Ugly Feet. Awhile ago I did a little bit of looking into stock photography. I thought it was funny that on one of the sites, they made specific mention of the stock photos they were NOT looking for. Feet. Seems that taking photos of your own feet is something everyone does and something everyone thinks makes great photos and the stock photo houses are not interested in receiving any more! So I was thinking about that and laughing… and decided that it would be the subject for today’s photo.  Plus, I bought these cute grungy photo/thru the viewfinder frames that I wanted to try out.

 

3.19.2009: Gigi Eats an Apple But Doesn’t Like It Much. Gianna has been BEGGING me for weeks to buy her apples. Her daycare lady told her that eating an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Everytime I go to the store, she asks if I remembered apples for her. Finally I did remember the apples, and so she attempted to eat one right away. This is a photo of her taking the peel out of her mouth. See that teeny-tiny bite mark? That’s as much as she ate. She set the apple on the counter and said “maybe I like them peeled better.”

 

3.20.2009: Fish Tacos. Yum. O.    I had some leftover tilapia fillets and decided to whip up some fish tacos for dinner. (NEW RECIPE!) So here they are: fish tacos topped with fresh pico de gallo and a spciy chili mayo sauce.  They were soooo good! I’ll definitely make them again.

 

3.21.2009: A Walk to the Cemetery. It was finally a nice spring day. Gianna and I took a walk/bike ride to the cemetery down the block and across the road from us.  I took the opportunity to photograph some of the cool headstones and statues there. I think this one is my favorite.

3.8.2009 thru 3.14.2009

3.8.2009: The Red Chair and the Decision to Add Scarlet Red to the Color Mix. I blogged about this one my main blog a few weeks ago. I decided on these pretty red chairs to go with our new black table, and as a result, have added red as an accent color throughout the house. I’m really liking it.

 

 

3.9.2009: Tile Detail. It was late, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to photograph. I decided on this perspective of the bathroom trim tile.

 

 

3.10.2009: Bedside Table. Another late night when I realized I didn’t have a photo yet. Snapped an image of what was on my bedside table – my earrings and some loose change from my pocket.

 

3.11.2009: Warm Fuzzy Blankets. I love these fuzzy blankets I have on my bed.

 

 

3.12.2009: Self Portrait in the Mirror. Not sure what inspired this photo today, but here it is. It was taken in the mirror (thus the reverse R on my sweatshirt…)

 

 

3.13.2009: Black Candelabra. I LOVE THIS! I found this at a local consignment place. It’s a black candelabra and it will go great in my house.

 

 

3.14.2009: Gianna and her Ipod. Gianna got a little MP3 player for her birthday and we finally got around to loading a few songs on it today. Here she is enjoying her new music.

3.1.2009 thru 3.7.2009

 

 

3.1.2009: Homemade Pesto. I learned how to make pesto on our honeymoon in Italy. I rarely make it because pine nuts are sometimes hard to find and/or expensive when I do find them. Digiornos used to make a really good pesto that I would buy at the grocery store, but I haven’t been able to find it now for awhile. I found a few other brands of pesto, but they just are not the same. Either they use walnuts or they use soybean oil instead of olive oil. NOT THE REAL THING! I have been craving a good pesto for some time now, and luckily found some pine nuts at the SuperTarget I stopped at last night. (The nearest SuperTarget is 30 miles from here, and I love shopping there! It’s a little too far to go to shop regularly, but if I’m driving by, I usually make a point to stop in. Why can’t they just build a Super Target in St. Cloud????) Anyway, I made some homemade pesto in the blender. In Italy I made it with a mezzaluna tool (literally, half moon… it’s a big curved knife with two handles). The other option is to use a food processor, but I have only a little mini one. So I gave the blender a whirl. LOL. No pun intended.  I wasn’t sure it would blend, but once I added enough olive oil, it came together nicely. Yum. O.

 

3.2.2009: Letter to Dad. Gigi has been writing notes for us. She *just* learned how to write DAD, and she’s been writing it over and over again. Here she taped his note on his drop counter in the kitchen so that he’d see it in the morning.

 

 

3.3.2009: Bistro Table. I found this cute little table on Craigslist at a local ebay store for just $40. I knew I wanted a little table and chair set to go in this corner, and I have been checking Craigslist daily for one. I was thrilled when I found this! Of course, it came unassembled, so I didn’t get it up right away. Luckily Jay called his dad over to assemble it. (Are you sensing a theme here with me and assembling things???) I hear it took them only three hours to get it together. Yikes. Anyway, I think it’s sorta cute. I’ve seen cuter ones, but I’m not willing to pay too much for something that’s just intended to be a decoration. Though Gigi enjoys sitting there having ‘tea.’ I think a coffee-themed photo would go nicely just above it.

 

 

3.4.2009: Gigi. Posing for the camera.

 

 

3.5.2009: Red Tomato. These babies are on their last leg.

 

 

3.6.2009: The New Cleaning Lady. I’ve been shopping for a new vacuum cleaner. The old house had NO carpet. None. Just a little area rug in the living room that didn’t need much – so we got by with a really old vacuum cleaner for a long time. But this house has a number of rooms with carpeting in them, so I really need to get a vacuum cleaner to get the carpets clean. Problem is I just haven’t been able to commit to anything! LOL. So Jay went out and bought an iRobot vacuum cleaner. He’s been wanting one for awhile, and in his mind, it was just what we needed. I admit, it wasn’t my first choice. It won’t do the kind of deeper vacuuming I think the carpeted rooms need. He bought it to use more as a cleaning tool to keep up on the floors from day to day and not necessarily as a deep cleaner. So we push the button in the morning before we leave the house and let it go. It does a surprisingly good job. (On the wood and tile floors and throw rugs, at least. Haven’t tried it on actual carpeting yet…) It vacuums up a lot of dust. And it’s actually kind of fun to watch it zoom about the room. I have no idea how it knows it’s covered the whole floor, but it knows. Now if it would just move the couches and vacuum underneath them.

 

3.7.2009: Night Photo. Jay and I headed to a surprise birthday party for a friend of ours tonight held at a local bar/restaurant. I brought the little camera with, since I knew I’d be *ahem* consuming adult beverages, I didn’t want to be responsible for hauling my big dSLR with. I got this photo of Jay sitting in the van in the parking lot before we went into the building. No flash, just the light from the lightpost in the parking lot. It’s a little grainy and blurry, but for as little light as there was, it turned out pretty good.

2.22.2009 thru 2.28.2009

2.22.2009: Kissy Face. Jay and Gigi sharing a loving moment. She’s been really generous with her kisses lately.

 

2.23.2009: Bruschetta. Not a new recipe. An old classic. I learned this when we were in Italy. It’s simply tomatoes, garlic, basil, fresh mozzarella cheese, and olive oil. It’s the Italian version of pico de gallo. It’s so, so, so good. It’s great served over toasted french bread rubbed with garlic. But if you don’t have french bread, it’s equally as delicious on triscuit crackers.

 

2.24.2009: Reluctant Dancer. Tonight was photo night at dance class. We had a few extra minutes before needing to head out, and hoped to snapped my own photos of her all dressed up, especially since we still had some daylight left. Well, little miss stubborn dance wouldn’t put the pink tutu on nor would she agree to let me photograph her without it on. So the little tutu was stuffed into the dance bag to be put on AT dance class shortly before posing for the photo.

 

2.25.2009: Dinner with the In Laws. Jay’s parents came over for dinner tonight, bringing some Papa Murphy’s pizzas. They were in Florida when we moved, and so they are now getting around to see the new digs.

 

2.26.2009: Winter Snow. I attended an off-site work session today at a local college. We got a few inches of snow today along with some nasty winds and despite the travel complications, it actually made for some fun photo opportunities.

 

2.27.2009: Surprise Finding: Wedding Stuff. I found these little figurines in a box of stuff I was unpacking. I haven’t seen these in years! I made these little figurines 9 years ago for our wedding! See the resemblance?? LOL. They were made with polymer clay, and that is what my dress looked like! I initially intended for this to be our cake topper, since I didn’t feel right about having a standing bride and groom on our cake, and I sought out to make my own. (At the time I went nuts over polymer clay stuff and thought it would be my hobby of choice.) I ended up doing a cake without ANY cake topper, but I still used these little figures as decoration at the reception. Until I found them in the box, I had forgotten about them!

 

2.28.2009: Maternity Session. I did a photo session for an expecting friend today. She’s just a few weeks away from giving birth and she looks positively amazing. So cute and healthy and happy. This is just one portrait from the session. I can’t wait to try them in black and white. I think they’ll look great.

2.15.2009 thru 2.21.2009

2.15.2009: New Recipe: Prime Rib Roast. I made a prime rib roast for dinner tonight – something I’ve never attempted cooking before. It was really yummy and sooo easy, too!

 

2.16.2009: “New” Lamp. I picked up these lamp bases a couple of months ago at a local consignment/trash to treasure shop. I knew they’d fit in perfectly with the decor of the new house. Last week I picked up some new lampshades for them – the lampshades are a type of faux leather, and they are really soft. The shape is not something I normally would have picked out – It’s a little outside my comfort zone, but hey, I’m all about trying new things lately, so I decided to give them a whirl. I know they are very classically shaped – they just aren’t what I would have considered my style. But now that they are in, I am very happy with how they look. The colors and style fit the house perfectly.

2.17.2009: One of the Many Benefits of Having an Elevator is Being Able to Haul in Groceries. I think the title says it all. :) We did our first grocery trip after moving in, and using the elevator to haul the bags in was awesome! PS – We really don’t consume that much junk food. It just happens that the few things I did get happened to be on top of the bags. :)

2.18.2009: Thank God for Bob, aka Denise Knows Her Limits. In the last house we had built in dressers in the walk in closet. We didn’t get built ins here. We went CHEAP with the closet stuff. Just some wire racks to hang our clothes on. However, we still need a place to store our socks and delicates. :) So a trip to Target was in order. I am so glad black furniture is trendy right now – it’s not hard to find! I got the last two black dressers they had. I took one out of the box and assessed the FQ (frustration quotient) for the finished product. I promptly put the boards back in the box and called Jay’s friend Bob to come over and assemble for me. In a previous life, Bob was a carpenter, so boards and nails and assembling things makes sense to him. I knew if I had attempted putting these together I would have ended up first cussing, then, drinking, then, crying. So for once I didn’t get myself in over my head. Bob to the rescue. He did a great job putting them together. It took him only three hours. I still feel kinda bad about that. (I figure three hours for Bob means about 10 hours for me. No. Thank. You.) Thanks Bob. I owe you.

 

2.19.2009: New Recipe: Rum Cake. I’ve had a hankering for some rum cake for awhile. I don’t know why… I don’t even really like rum. But something about it just sounded so delicious when poured over cake. Seriously, this craving has been festering for a year. Finally I gave in. It as an easy recipe. Basically it’s a yellow cake mix with some pudding and rum mixed in, and then a delicious rum glaze poured over the top when it’s done. I tried a piece after it had cooled down, and the rum flavor was a bit overpowering. But the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that, the cake was soooo good! So good. I can’t wait to make it again.

 

2.20.2009: Char’s Garden. Friday night and I went scrapbooking at Creative Escapes. I didn’t really have time in my schedule to do this with moving the week before, but I didn’t want to bail out. So Friday after work, I hauled my stuff over to Char’s. There was a bit of snowfall that day, too, and it made her outdoor garden full of photographic opportunities! I loved these wire insects.

 

2.21.2009: New Tree. First of all, I’m not totally happy with the color in this one. I have a learning curve to overcome. In the house we have fluorescent lights everywhere, and I haven’t learned how to compensate for the white balance on them quite accurately yet. So I attempted to make this photo look more retro with a few color altering actions. I’m not sure I like how it looks – when I see other people’s photos using this same action, I like them. I just never like how my own turn out. Anyhow, this is a decorative tree I picked up the night before when I went to a local ebay store. I went to buy a new bistro table and chairs for in this corner of the kitchen (photos of it still to come) and they had this pretty tree there for just $25. I know these things cost a lot more, and I thought it would go great in my house. So I made an impulse purchase and brought it home. Initially I envisioned it going in the sun room… but Jay convinced me to try it here first. I think with some white lights strung on it, it will make a really pretty accent in that corner.

2.8.2009 thru 2.14.2009

2.8.2009: Moving In. We hauled the majority of our stuff here today. We’re not able to move in yet – we don’t have sinks, so for now, our bed remains at the old house and will be moved over on Tuesday. But we got a good chunk of stuff moved today with the help of a rented Uhaul trailer and some loyal family members willing to pitch in. My mom said she had dreams about bubble wrap that night.

 

2.9.2009: Clearing Out . The old house, nearly empty.

 

2.10.2009: Organizing Priorities. As I start organizing the kitchen and putting stuff away, the liquor cabinet was one of the first chores I tackled. And since we closed on the house today, a couple of those bottles were put to use tonight.

 

2.11.2009: Cooking With Gas. The inaugural dinner on the new gas cooktop. I have never cooked on a gas cooktop before, so this was definitely an interesting first for me. People have warned me it’s like learning to cook all over again. Time will tell.

 

2.12.2009: Bookshelf Assembly. The walls I painted Wheat Penny this past summer… I’m finally moving in and getting organized! I bought a couple of bookshelves at IKEA and assembled them today. They will hold my stamps and stamping supplies.

 

2.13.2009: Boxes Everywhere. The majority of the boxes have been emptied and contents put away in new homes. The result: stacks of boxes here and there.

 

2.14.2009: Gift from a Neighbor. One of our neighbors stopped by this morning with a ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ treat for us: a loaf of delicious Great Harvest bread. It was delicious.

2.1.2009 thru 2.7.2009

 

2.1.2009: The Kitchen Sink. More progress on the new house. The sink and faucet were installed recently. Of all the things I picked out for the house, I think the sinks are my favorite. I love them. Behind the sink you can see the un-grouted tile on the wall. Also, the window ledges will eventually have granite ledges placed on them. It’s coming together nicely!

 

2.2.2009. Gigi Writes. Four years ago today we brought her home from the hospital. Here she is writing in her little notebook. How quickly she has grown!

 

2.3.2009: A Trip to the Salon. Gigi and I had haircuts tonight after dance class. I wasn’t sure Gianna would like the whole hair washing part, but she did. She giggled the whole time! Stephanie did a great job cutting and styling her hair. It looks so cute!

 

2.4.2009: The Wine Rack. Nothing fancy – just another part of the house. I would say I’m going to miss it, but the one at the new house will be twice the size.

 

2.5.2009: Celebration. We got the conditional certificate of occupancy on the new house. We shared a bottle of wine to celebrate!

 

2.6.2009: Sick Day. Poor Gianna woke up with a fever this morning, so we had to stay home today. She has chicken noodle soup for lunch. She didn’t really act sick – she was happy and cheerful, but that darn fever would linger for 4 days and keep her from sleeping well at night. Having a sick child when trying to move was a challenge. Sure, she was really patient and good the whole time we were focusing on boxes and packing, but she didn’t sleep that well at night, and getting up with her every hour made us totally exhausted on top of all the physical exhaustion from moving boxes all weekend.

 

2.7.2009: Moving Day. Boxes and packing tape and bubble wrap. It feels like it is nearly insurmountable.