good eats: turkey dogs & sweet potato fries

I love this time of year when sweet potatoes are a'plenty at the grocery store and I get to bring some home to make delicious eats with them.   This time, I wanted to try something different - sweet potato fries.  I just peeled 2 large sweet potatoes, washed them thoroughly, and cut them up into fry stick shapes.  Actually, my stick shapes look more like chunks.  Meanwhile, the oven was heating up to a nice 375.  I laid the fries on a stone cookie sheet (I'm sure a regular metal cookie sheet works fine too) and drizzled them with olive oil.  Once in the oven, they cooked for 35 minutes.  No salt or pepper are necessary, although my kids like to eat them with ketchup.  I like them plain.  These are so good & so easy to make that I am sure they will be on our dinner table again soon.

My kids are slowly learning to like them.  I did hear once that you have to put a new food on your child's plate 10 times before they'll try it or like it.  We've had sweet potatoes - in some way, shape or form - about 6 times, so they are well on their way to liking them ;)

What's your favorite sweet potato recipe?

--Anna

officially Fall

It's officially Fall & I am looking forward to the slightly cooler weather (still about 100 in the desert but cooler temps are on the way).  Our old brick house is for sale so I don't want to go all out with the decorations, but decided a few were in order to celebrate the season.  Thanks to Pinterest, I am completely inspired to try new things with pumpkins this year.  

{note to self: buy a pretty old chair like the one below}

{source: roomseventeenstyle.blogspot.com}

What are you doing to pretty up your home for Fall?  Leave me a link - I'd love to see!

--Anna

it's Friday

Today is a day for playing with cool cars

and a rocky superhero

and dinosaurs that like Lego skyscrapers.

What are you doing today?

Have a lovely weekend,

--Anna

missing the Mr.

Today I am missing the Mr. & all his silliness.

Our old brick house is pretty quiet without him here.  I have figured out that I am the serious one, the shy one, the taskmaster, the one that cracks the whip around here.  I think I need to lighten up.  Or maybe I am silly too, just not when I am without my trusted sidekick.  

How about you?  Do you break out of your shell when your Mr. isn't around??

Today, I'll be braving parent/teacher conferences with all 4 kids in tow.  And I'll be fine as long as Nonee decides he will behave and NOT wrestle his older brother to the hallway floor like he did last time.  Oi.

--Anna

sweet winnings

Remember the giveaway I won & posted about here?  Well prize #2 arrived the mail last week and I am finally getting around to posting about it.  The very sweet Emily, from Blue Corduroy, offered a nice discount on anything in her shop.  I picked out a new dress for Tot because she LOVES dresses and there was one in her size.  I loved the color combo too and kinda fell in love with the polka dot fabric she paired with the vintage floral pattern.

Emily also gifted some small seashells, which Nonee is all too happy to play with.  I think he's been carrying the white one around with him all afternoon.

Yeah, I think this dress pretty much rocks.

Check out Emily's shop HERE & her blog HERE.

Thanks Emily,

--Anna

old specs

**I know this post was supposed to appear yesterday, but I decided to take a day and focus on my kids.  We spent the day playing, watching movies, visiting Nana & Grandpa, swimming, and looking at stars.  It was a perfect day.**

Tot got bright red specs a couple of weeks ago.  She's adorable in them & they match her crazy personality perfectly.  But I didn't want to just throw away a perfectly good pair of glasses, so I looked up ways to donate eyeglasses on google.  Aahhhh, the power of google.  I found out that the Lions Club has a donation program established & you can send in your old specs to local spots or directly to their headquarters.  I found an address in my state, so we packed them up {along with an old pair of mine} and we are shipping them off this week.

The sweater and pants in the background will also be mailed to the Mr. during the same trip to the little post office in town.  He has arrived in Virginia and started his new job this past Wednesday.  He says we'll love it there.  We are both anxious to get our whole family out there and get things back to normal.  It's kinda crazy staying behind with 4 kiddles while the Mr. is clear across the country.  There's no more picking up the phone to see if he can get milk at the grocery store on the way home.  I really took stuff like that for granted.  Not anymore.  I have true respect for single parents.  

I hope you had a pleasant weekend, filled with family & good times.

--Anna

toothless

Tot lost a tooth at school yesterday.  She claims she was attacked by an automatic hand dryer in the bathroom at school, which knocked her very loose tooth out once and for all.  Her friend gave her a flower ring to celebrate the occasion.

The school nurse gave her a purple plastic treasure chest in which to hold her tooth.  The tooth fairy gave her a whopping $0.50 for it.  And the tooth fairy remembered to bring her said riches on the very first night.  Amazing, I know.

Did you notice Tot's new red specs?  She LOVES them.  We are doing something special with her old ones.  Stop by tomorrow to see....

Happy Friday,

--Anna

cooling off

It was cooler today than the norm, so Tot & Nonee had a fabulous idea - go outside & play!  See, where we live the temps have been record breaking highs, so playing outside for like the last 2 months have been a no-go.  And that's like pure torture for any kid.  And any parent for that matter.  Cabin fever, anyone??

The Radio Flyer was busted out.

And rides were taken - & given.

And gang signs flashed.  Yo.

It was a good day.  I love these little moments - when my kids are perfectly content.  It makes my heart smile.

Have a lovely day,

--Anna

my collection

I don't collect much.  I don't like clutter.  I do have a small Eeyore collection - all of the items given to me by family & friends since I was a teenager.  Apparently I was a grouchy teenager.  I blame that on hormones.  Not a single item have I purchased on my own.  

Until now. 

For several months now I have been collecting plastic bread tabs.  Odd, I know, but it's a collection just like any other.   I like my tabs flat.  Size and color are not as important.  One day I am going to make something with them.  That's what I get for majoring in fibers in college.  I'm always looking at everyday objects & wonder what I can do with them.   It's going to take a long time to make my secret project because I need, oh, say 300 more of these bad boys.   That's a lot of bread to buy.  One day......one day.  

Do you collect things?  Please share.

Have a lovely day,
--Anna

do you Pinterest?

I finally jumped onto the Pinterest bandwagon {thanks to my friends Kirsten & Shannon} and have become hopelessly addicted.  I love that I can divide all the things I gush over into categories and then look at them whenever I please.  It's great for inspiration - which will really help when we move & I have a new house to decorate.  Oh yes, it's going to be fun.  Great fun, I tell you :)

                                                                                 Source: pequeocio.com via Anna on Pinterest

Do you Pinterest?  Find me & we can follow each other.  Wouldn't that be fun?

--Anna

happy mail

A few weeks ago, I was the lucky winner of a sponsor giveaway at Smile And Wave.  My first package arrived in the mail & I couldn't even wait to get home to open it.  That's right people - I love packages.  This one was filled with goodies from Katie from Charmed Earth.  Her generous giveaway included magnets & clothespins that are even prettier in real life, a simple necklace that I wear often (& get sweet compliments on, too), and she threw in a cute bookplate for kicks.  Getting this package totally made my day.

Read Katie's lovely blog HERE.

And be sure to check out her shop HERE.

Thanks Katie!,

--Anna

Make It Tuesday: bed makeover

I've been stuck in a whirlwind of packing boxes & taking photos of the house for the realtor, remodeling our main bathroom, setting aside items for our yard sale this weekend, and trying to juggle life inbetween. I finished packing up most of the kids' rooms and am kind of in love with how clean they are right now.  In fact, I kind of don't mind if what I've packed already doesn't come with us.  I know they'll miss their stuff, but I sure won't.  Is that mean?   So amongst all the business, I found time to spray paint the bed frames we bought at a consignment shop forever ago for our girls.  There were two of them, they were the perfect size (twin) and they were cute.  Just a little worn out & white.  But the DIYer in me knew something could be done to change that.

The Mr. suggested black & I loved the idea.  So we headed over to The Home Depot for some glossy black spray paint (a much better choice since we had lots of nooks & crannies to get paint into on the posts).

Years ago, my grandma gave me the blanket that my grandpa had on his bed before he passed away.  I remembered that she had an exact match on her on her bed when I was a little girl.   But hadn't used it in years.  So I got brave and asked her for it & she was more than happy to give it to me.  Now my girls have them.  I love that they've inherited a small piece of two very special people in my life.

I looked through my photo archives & can't find the "before" photos I took.  I hate it when things mysteriously disappear.  Just pretend you saw photos of a plain old scratched up white bed frame that needed some serious lovin.  

Have a lovely day,

--Anna

today

Nonee are hangin' out today.  I've finished going through the last of the boxes from the garage this morning & will be pricing old stuff for our big yard sale on Labor Day.  I can't believe we never fully unpacked from our last move 6 years ago.  Totally embarrassing.  That won't be happening with this next move.  I pinky swear it.

We are passing the time watching Star Wars and playing alphabet games on the computer.  He's pretty in love with the wireless mouse.

Have a lovely & safe holiday weekend.
--Anna
PS - I've got a Make It Monday post planned for Monday so be sure to stop by to see what my girl's beds look like now!

thrifty find

I love me a good thrifty find & happened upon one a handful of weeks ago.  Actually, the Mr. {who loves to thrift with me} spotted it & said something like, "Hey hon, don't you like that stuff?"  I twirled around to see a lovely hobnail milk glass vase sitting on a shelf & thought I'd died & gone to heaven.  I'm weak in the knees for that "stuff".  And it was one whole whopping dollar.  I'd been favorite-ing some just like it on etsy for much more than that so it totally made my day.

Since everything is packed up or not in its normal place at the moment, I had to get fancy & take the photo using the Mr.'s guitar amp in place of  a shelf or table.  I think it works.

Any good thrifty finds for you lately??

Have a lovely day,

--Anna