Snow Day

I love snow days, just like I did when I was a kid, but for different reasons. Even though our snow day wasn't laden with icy roads or dangerous conditions (this time), it did force us to slow down and stay in (other than a few minutes playing outside a couple of times). This was Levi's first time to play in the snow. He's seen it a few times, but never played in it. I expected him to not be a huge fan right away, much like he is with other situations, like the beach. He's not so sure about it at first, but warms up and slowly develops a love for it. I was right - he wasn't a big fan the first time we went out. Later in the afternoon we tried again and he liked it more. I predict that next time it snows, he'll be begging to go out and play, in the same way I'm very excited about our beach vacation next month. :)

Estate Sale Find

I'm looking forward to (hopefully) going to a big estate sale that starts this week and it reminded me to share this little find from a sale I went to with my grandma quite a while back.

I found two old wooden crates in the garage of this sale and bought them. Later, we picked up some little stainless steel casters at a discount store for the crates. Tyler put casters on one, and we gave it to his mom for part of her Christmas gift. I'm still waiting on him to put the casters on mine.... meanwhile, with the crate being so multi-functional, I found another use for it. I had some house plants sitting around needing to be permanently potted, so I dropped them in my crate and it makes a charming little plant box. I'm sure this crate will have many homes throughout my house, but for now, I'm loving this charming little set-up.

Here are some inspiration pictures of uses for these crates that I've run across:

{Pictures 1, 2, & 3 from here}

{Picture from here}

{Picture from here}

{Picture from here}

{Picture from here}

And here is my little crate...dozens of possibilities for this little guy.

Roasted Carrots

I love the carrots at Charleston's. They are delicious. For a couple of years, I've been trying to make a close match at home, by trial-and-error (and at my family's expense). I really love carrots and have tried really hard to get them into our meal rotation semi-often, but I just haven't had luck fixing them a way that I really like. 

Steamed carrots are ok, but I reserve those for after-church-crockpot-roast/potatoes/carrots lunch at my parents' house, and Tyler is not a big fan anyway. I've read several copycat recipes for the Charleston's carrots, but they are always complicated and I am one for very simple recipes. Several of the "copycat" recipes suggest cooking the carrots on the stove top and I don't feel like that yields the same semi-crunchy results. I finally just came up with my own recipe by trial-and-error (lots of error) and I'm happy to share it because they were really great (finally).

Ingredients:
1 small bag of carrots
2 T olive oil
1 1/2 T brown sugar - use less, or none to make a more healthy recipe ;)
1/2 tsp. fine sea salt
course ground pepper

Instructions:
Peel the carrots and cut into large bite-size chunks. Mix the oil and sugar and toss the carrots to coat, and put them in a baking dish. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the carrots (using course pepper is key). Bake at 425 degrees for 35 minutes.

I'd love to know what you think if you try them.

A Little Oklahoma On My Couch

I saw this little pillow here back in 2011, and then a few weeks later I ordered 2 pillows for Christmas presents for family members. My mother-in-law was a recipient of one of the pillows, and every time I see it at her house I think "I want to get one of those for my house" and then I never did. Until now....enter 2013 Valentine's Day present to me.

My 2011 order was a custom order (I picked the colors for the fabric) and this one was a custom order too. Marek did not disappoint either time - she is super nice to work with and super fast on production and shipping (I think I talked to her Thursday last week? and my pillow arrived this morning). Check out her shop: marekalaine on Etsy.

This fun little pillow will live in my living room for now, but it would be great anywhere - in a kid's room, a playroom, on a bed, etc. Here she is:

{I tried to get him to smile and "model" the pillow but he was NOT about to humor me}