{new loves}

rings from banana republic

sandals from nine west

happy weekend!!

inspiration

i am so inspired by susanne's latest post...her flowers are gorgeous and blooming, and it makes me want to have pretty pots of flowers on my front porch. my poor herb garden is in need of attention too... i want to weed it and cut back some of the herbs that have gotten a little out of control.

mike inspires me too...he's stays so busy and full of energy all the time. today he closed a big loan that he's been working on for a couple of doctors here. then he's coming home and mowing and edging the yard!

and my mom inspires me...she and les are settling in their house and getting everything organized and cleaned.

so i'm inspired and can think of lots of projects i want to do...if only i had some energy and wasn't sleepy all of the time! but i'm determined to clean the rest of my house today and cook a good southern dinner tonight (cornbread, sausage, black eyed peas, and cabbage.)

here's the recipe for the salmon and spagetti dish i made...i found a recipe in giada's newest cookbook and then changed it up a bit...and i made it for just the two of us, but it could easily be doubled.

1/3 bag of organic spagetti

2 natural salmon fillets

1 lemon

2 tb olive oil

1 1/2 cups fresh organic spinach

salt and pepper

parmesan

boil water and cook spagetti. while spagetti is cooking, cut up salmon into 1 inch squares and season with s & p. heat up skillet and cook salmon until done. in individual bowls, put 3/4 cup spinach in each bowl. when spagetti is cooked, toss with olive oil and juice from one lemon, plus s & p. put spagetti on top of spinach, then top with salmon and parmesan.

it may sound like an odd combo, but is so yummy! and the hot spagetti cooks the spinach a little, but it's still crisp. enjoy!

5 weeks

i was exactly 5 weeks when mike took this picture! we have our first ob appt. and sonogram on june 15th. so excited and ready for it. i can't wait to hear this little baby's heartbeat.

it is a gorgeous day here. sunny and bright. i've been waiting all week for the rain that the weatherman says is coming, but i haven't seen it yet thankfully.

we had such a nice day on monday...brett and savanah and kathy and dennis came over. savanah brought her new shitzu, lola belle, who is the cutest thing i have ever seen! we went to the pool and the guys played tennis. then we went to mcalister's for some lunch (i wanted their iced tea so bad, but i'm trying to do the no caffeine thing!) we just relaxed the rest of the day and i made a yummy dinner...spaghetti with lemon/olive oil sauce with salmon and spinach.

just to be sure...

just to be sure i did 4 tests...

I'M PREGNANT!!

pictures from naples

here we are on our last night eating at tommy bahama's...we had the sanibel stuffed chicken which is the BEST item on their menu. if you ever go, you have to try it!

here's my new sis, staci and her precious little girl, lauren

mom and i had so much fun shopping at waterside...a few minutes after this picture, it started pouring rain though

the beach and the sand is gorgeous! the sand is so fine and white...just beautiful!

{new loves}

the galliera pm bag from louis vuitton

these cute shorts from j. crew

happy friday!

show us where you live-dining rooms

hi! this week is dining rooms @ kelly's korner! we are really informal and love having an eat-in kitchen. so our dining space is in our kitchen. my dining table and chairs are from this fantastic store in waco called spice. my rug is from a local design center. and one year for our anniversary, my mom did this vase with coffee beans at the bottom and (artificial) white roses. i love it!

so since i missed kitchen week, here's my kitchen too. i LOVE to cook and LOVE my GE Monogram stove.

it has a griddle on top for making pancakes.

here's our coffee bar and my wine rack. (mike's wine rack is in his office). my little fat chefs were presents from my sister and a good friend.

i love having my sink in the island. it's a farmhouse Whitehaus sink.


thanks for looking!!!

check back later for my {new loves} on fridays, i post pics of new clothes/accessories i'm loving!

i'm HOOOOME!

hi blog! i've missed you!!

so mike and i were scheduled to fly home on tuesday morning and be home before lunchtime. but the day before we left mom said that she didn't think she could drive home from naples to waco by herself, since she's been sick and not feeling the greatest. (she and les have two cars there and each had to drive one back) and could i drive with her? of course, i would! she would have done the same for me in a second!

but any of you who know me well know that i get EXTREMELY carsick on a weekly basis. i never was carsick when i was little (it was always susanne that got sick) but in the last several years, it's gotten to be really bad...so the thought of being in a car for 23 hours and 1300 miles was not my kind of fun! but you know what...we did great! i tried to stay relaxed and i drove most of the time so i wouldn't feel sick. we got a book on cd to listen to and plenty of music too. we stopped in some cool places...pensacola and baton rouge...and tried to make it a fun trip.

it stopped being fun around 8 pm last night when we had driven all day again and were somewhere between conroe and waco. i was so tired and both our backs were aching from sitting in the same position all day. so i prayed to just let me get through it and get home. a little while later, one of mom's hilarious friends called and we talked to her for awhile...she helped get my mind off the drive and think about something else. by the time she hung up, we were only 15 minutes from home!

i don't know if my bed has ever felt so good as it did last night. i sunk into it and went to sleep for about 9 hours. and woke up to a beautiful morning here. so i'm back and will try to post some pics from our trip this weekend.

oh!!! i am LOVING this song...check out the video here !

loving the vaca!

here i am reading at the beach today. don't you love my fat belly hanging over my swimsuit bottom?! ha!

hi! we are loving naples despite it raining every day! we went to the beach today and yesterday and got some much needed sun. mom and i went shopping here on friday. the coolest shops and a beautiful setting. we also ate here last night....yum yum! i had the halibut and it was fantastic.

tonight i'm making shrimp fettucine in a lemon/olive oil sauce with sauteed spinach. and i made a tiramisu for dessert. we get to meet staci's husband and kids tonight, so that should be fun!

i'll post all our pics when we get back!

{hugs from naples}

vacation

picture courtesy of explorenaples.com

tommorrow morning we are leaving for VACATION! yea! mike and i are so ready to relax and not think about real life for awhile. this week has been a hard one...just a lot of stuff going on that is making us both stressed.

you know i'm one of those people who likes to plan. from elementary school through high school, i would plan what outfits i was going to wear the next day to school. (funny i know) i still do that now. i like to plan my meals in advance. i plan each day even if i don't have anything i HAVE to do...i like to be prepared and in control. but lately life has shown me that you can't plan everything. you may think your life is going to be one way and it turns out totally different. but sometimes that can be good. it can teach you flexibility, patience, and understanding. all qualities i am working on.

so this weekend, go do something unplanned.

i think i will too.

baking afternoon

i got my camera strap i ordered from phat straps on etsy! isn't it cute? it's black & white damask with hot pink chenille on the inside. {love it} and i got in a baking mood yesterday (i think it is my apron mom got me) and decided to try the blueberry scones in my martha stewart living magazine. here's all my ingredients. i like to get all the ingredients out before i start baking!

and here they are! they turned out so yummy. recipe courtesy of martha stewart:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cake flour

3 tb granulated sugar

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. salt

4 ounces cold butter (cut into small pieces)

1 cup fresh blueberries

1/2 cup low fat buttermilk

1 large egg, plus 1 egg beaten for egg wash

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

fine sugar, for sprinkling

preheat oven to 375*. line a baking sheet with parchment paper. whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. cut in butter with pastry cutter, or rub in with your fingers, until mixture has texture of coarse meal. stir in blueberries. whisk together buttermilk, 1 egg, and vanilla. drizzle over flour mixture, and stir lightly with a fork until dough comes together but a small amount of flour remains in bowl. turn out dough onto work surfact and gently knead dough once or twice to incorporate flour. pat dough into 1 inch thick round. cut into 12 wedges and transfer to prepared baking sheet. brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sanding sugar. bake until golden brown and cooked through.

(i would add another tablespoon of sugar into dough just because i like my scones a little sweeter)

and here's our dinner last night. i linked a recipe for red potato soup to my post yesterday. i improvised a little bit and added chicken, but it was some of the best potato soup i've eaten. and we had swiss/cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches to go with the soup! yummy!

here i am after cooking everything. giada doesn't look this tired after cooking her meals. hehe!

lastly...i'm so loving gavin degraw's new album and this song!

menu for the week

picture from martha stewart



this menu is a short one because we're leaving on thursday for florida...

breakfast-blueberry scones and organic yogurt with granola

lunch-natural ham and cheese sandwiches

dinner
monday-homemade potato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches
tuesday- natural pork tenderloin with cream gravy, sauteed spinach
wednesday- chicken and cheese tortellini with homemade alfredo sauce

total grocery bill (including paper products, lotion, razors, and alka seltzer cold)
$87.00

happy monday!

fUn wEekeNd!

lyndsay stopped by to give me a beautiful thank you card. and its her first handmade card! thanks girly!

friday night we went to se cocina for dinner. we ALL got grandma's tacos...which i think is the best item on the menu. yum!

saturday we went to aaron and peggy's. we went out on the river in aaron's boat and watched him do barefoot tricks. kevin decided to try and barefoot and got up and skiied on his first try. way to go kev! i sliced my finger open on the metal cable that holds the boat up in the boat house and started bleeding on my cute j.crew cover up. but other than that, we had an awesome time. we grilled burgers and sat on the dock. then watched a movie while the guys played ping pong. so fun!

and here's the cutest little shelf i found at spice on saturday. i wanted a black iron vintage looking shelf for my scrapbook room and can't believe i got it for only $20!

hope you had a great weekend!

{new loves}

i saw this anthro necklace last week in plano...it's scrumptious isn't it? love these headbands from motley handmade...i just ordered one with pink and green flowers and a brown band. so excited to get it!

can't you see yourself shopping in a beach town in this?! free people blouse at nordstrom

yesterday i got a package in the mail from my mom. as soon as i took out the present wrapped in anthro tissue paper, i was thrilled. it was the CUTEST apron...aqua, navy, and lime made very similar to this one! what a great surprise {love you mom}

show us where you live-living room

*edited* here are a few details about my living room too!
i'm posting pictures of my living room for a "show us where you live" post on Kelly's Korner...here they are! the grouping of pictures are ones i took from a trip to san francisco and napa. i got the frames at michael's.

the wall color is Sherwin Williams Repose Grey (SW 7015). my rug i got here...the couch used to be a goldish color, but i had it recovered linen colored fabric. the blue and white pillows are from target. my yellow and white striped chair and pillow are from pottery barn. the leather chair and ottoman are from the room store.

the apothecary jar filled with shells i got at marshall's. and the cute little seahorse with coral on it i got at z gallerie. most of the books on the mantle, i've found on sale at barnes & noble and borders. and our family portrait was taken by him.

have a great friday! oh and check back later, i'll be posting my friday {new loves}

50TH POST!!!

i hope you're having a great thursday! mine was filled with cleaning and laundry. and my last nutrition final. yippee! we are getting ready for company this weekend. 4 of our friends from austin are coming tomorrow and staying for the weekend. we have lots of fun things planned. se cocina for dinner tomorrow night, cafe cappucino for brunch saturday, and i made a salami/colby jack frittata for breakfast sunday with fresh fruit and warm croissants. can you tell i think about food all the time?! we can't wait to catch up with them, talk, drink wine, and have fun on aaron and peggy's boat sat. afternoon. i'll try to take some good pics!

for now, here are a couple of random pics around our house...enjoy.

loving the pink

this is my latest little project for my scrapbook room. i bought this shelf a LONG time ago at hobby lobby on clearance...two of the mirrors were missing. i liked it without the mirrors and hung it in my hallway in our last house. but since we moved, it has been sitting in a closet for almost a year. i got it out when i cleaned my closets a few weeks ago thinking i would give it away, but last week i was inspired to repurpose it after seeing a very similar shelf at anthropologie.

i decided to put it in my scrapbook room, and susanne suggested i put fabric panels in the empty spaces to cozy up the room and give it some color. so today i found this great fabric on sale at hobby lobby which i LOVED! all i did was cut the panels to be just a bit larger than the empty space and used a regular stapler to staple the fabric to the back of the shelf.

i hung it, then put on the little shelf a vintage perfume bottle from my grandmother filled with jasmine from our yard (smells divine), one of my favorite pics of all time at my wedding, and my little chick a friend got me from spice.

i used some green and white ribbon tied to a silver clip and clipped on a couple of my latest scrapbook pages...

i hung this iron "S" i got at anthro a long time ago on my small wall by the closet. i used the same green and white ribbon and cute little flower attached to a big paper clip and clipped on two of my new pieces of heidi swapp cardstock...just until i use them!

and just to keep it real, this is what the other half of my room looks like {chuckle}

i think i want to get a vintage looking iron stand or shelves to make a home for all this stuff on the floor. maybe i'll try the flea market this weekend!

grocery list

dear whole foods,

i love you. i wish you were here with me in waco. but until you are, i will continue to visit you in austin.

love,

danielle

here you go, susanne...the following is my grocery list for this week. i spent only $122 at heb and bought primarily organic...

breakfast

fresh fruit smoothies, yogurt with strawberry granola/blueberry granola

lunch

organic turkey sandwiches, leftovers

snacks

fresh fruit and veggies

dinner

saturday- grilled steak, fresh garlic bread, grilled veggies, potato

sunday-eat out

monday-homemade pizza

tuesday-salmon with couscous, asparagus

wednesday-shredded chicken and pepper quesadillas, guacamole and tortilla chips

thursday- pasta with fresh veggies, salami, and parmesan

backyard

mike and i worked on our backyard patio today. we got the chair and chaise cushions here and some great plants from our local nursery that was having an anniversary sale!

it's amazing how different things can look with just a few inexpensive changes...


listen to backyard natasha bedingfield