It's been a long road, but I'm back at it...

Between school, moving back in with my parents, and mothering duties, it has been an extremely long time since I posted here, and I apologize for that. A lot has changed since my last post. Things in which I will not go into any depth or detail on here about, things that if you know me personally you are aware of. My goal for this summer is to get back into blogging, back into creating, back into doing what makes me happy.

The point of this post was to let you know that I'm still here, and I'll be posting more in the upcoming weeks (especially after I finish this tedious semester). If you have checked in on here in the past few months, thank you. Please continue to do so. I look forward to sharing some of my life highlights with you and hope you are as excited as I am :)

See you soon,
Kaitlin

Baking Soda Fun!

I'm an avid fan and user of Pinterest, and find myself constantly intrigued and inspired to create things that I see on there. This little project was one of them. Aislyn is getting a little older and more adept to handle more art and science type projects, and this one fit right into that category. And its easy to set up. AND it kept her entertained for a good hour (and counting). All you need is baking soda, vinegar and food coloring. Easy-peasy. You probably already have it on hand.

The Set Up:

- I strongly recommend placing newspaper on whatever surface the child (or yourself, I won't tell!) will be working on.

- Pour baking soda in a baking dish that has at least an inch lip around it.  The baking soda should just cover all of the pan, it does not have to be deep.

-Put about 5 drops of food coloring into little dishes, then add vinegar to fill. Stir to combine.

- We used spoons to drop the vinegar onto the baking soda, but you can use eye droppers too.

 

As you can see, all you do is add a spoonful of colored vinegar to the baking soda and watch it fizz up! It's fun for the little ones!

Hope you have some fizzy fun!
Kaitlin
 

Halloween!

Here's some fun pictures from Halloween. After much begging, I finally gave in and let Aislyn be a Princess.[Sidenote: As most of my real life peeps know, I strongly dislike princesses and the whole princess culture crap that's going on. Its all BS in my opinion. "Lets teach our daughters that they are the best thing in the universe, that they need to wait for Prince Charming to come and sweep them off their feet because they are helpless little beings that need to be rescued. That they are the most special thing in the universe and can never be wrong..." I think this phenomenon has encouraged the self-entitlement and nanny state mindset of the current generation. It promotes learned helplessness. Children need to be taught how to cope, how to deal with hard situations logically and successfully, without hand holding and coddling. It does not mean that you are not a kind loving parent, nor that you don't think your child is special. It does, however, mean that your head isn't up your-you-know-what and that you are trying to prepare your child for real life situations and be successful. But I digress...] As I was saying, Aislyn wanted to be a princess, and I gave in because she had her heart set on it, no matter how hard I tried to change her mind. We curled her hair, put her in a pink dress, got her the gaudiest hello kitty crown and wand thing ever and sprayed glitter all over her. She was ecstatic. We had a few friends over, including Aislyn's friend Layna, and went trick-or-treating then had dinner and then went back out trick-or-treating. The two little girls had a blast and were worn out by the end of the night.

I hope your Halloween was just as fun as ours!
-Kaitlin

Lamp Makeover

I recently received two end table lamps from a family friend. Although they went well in her house and matched her decor, they were in need of a little makeover to fit mine. They started off as gold with darker specks to make it looked aged, I guess... Here's the before:

Daaaaated. I took my best friend, spray paint, and went at it. Here's the after!

Next I'm going to either find a drum lampshade that I like or put new, more modern fabric on the existing lampshade frame. Hooray!

Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin

I made this the other night and it was a huge hit! I combined a couple of different recipes to form my own and completely eyeballed the ingredients, so the measurements are off, but I wanted to give you a rough idea of the amounts.

Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin

For the marinade:
1-1.5 cups white wine
2-3 tbsp. fresh rosemary, finely chopped
~2 tbsp. chopped garlic
~2 tbsp. dijon mustard

Additional Ingredients:
1.5 lb Pork tenderloin
6-7 pieces of bacon
3/4 cup or so brown sugar
2 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper

First, pour all marinade ingredients in a large plastic Ziploc bag and shake to combine. Add the pork tenderloin and let sit for a few hours in the refrigerator. I marinated mine overnight. Next, combine the brown sugar and black pepper in a small bowl and stir until combined. Add a little of the leftover marinade to form a thick paste. Wrap the bacon around the tenderloin with edges overlapping until completely covered. Rub the brown sugar mixture over bacon only on the topside of the loin. Place on a roasting rack in the middle of an oven at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, then drop the temperature down to 400 for an additional 15 minutes. Slice into medallions and enjoy!

Georgia Florida Trip

Aislyn and I went south this summer to visit family and enjoy a change of scenery. We stayed with my brother and his friend, Jeff, in my grandparents old house. It was very odd to see it completely different from the last time I was there, but I'm glad to know it is being taken care of. Aislyn and I flew from Boston to Atlanta with a connecting flight in Newark, NJ. Let me tell you, next time I am flying direct. It was such a hassle to carry 2 carry-on bags, a huge pocketbook, and Aislyn --whose legs had mysteriously stopped working right when I really needed her to walk-- and change terminals in a complex procedure involving 2 flights of stairs and 2 bus rides. We got there though and that's all that matters! We drove directly from Atlanta to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Florida and spent the next few days there. We had absolutely gorgeous weather, a great beach, and a wonderful time catching up with everyone.

On our way back to Georgia we stopped at a Texaco station in Eufaula, AL famous for having some unusual residents in it's backyard. It was good timing because Aislyn was getting tired of sitting in her car seat and it was nice to get out and move around a bit.

 

 

She still talks about the gators! We then spend the next week in Georgia visiting with family. I met my ninety-two year old great great aunt who is as vibrant as can be and still lives all by herself completely unassisted. I hope I'm like that at her age. It was really cool. We got some good Southern Preachin' at my Papa's church, visited my great-aunt who's in a nursing home, and learned a ton about sheep from my  aunt who has over twenty of them. I enjoyed the trip thoroughly. How was your summer?

Bathroom Makeover

Our house has one full bath and one half-bath. The upstairs full bath was in dire need of a paint job. The old paint made it look tiny, and it is a small bathroom to begin with. It wasn't cutting it for me. This was our upstairs bathroom before we painted it: 

Old, dark green and light yellow paint with dingy off white trim gave the bathroom a very dated feel.

We switched out the paint for a light blue on the top and a crisp white on the bottom half plus the rest of the trim. Eventually we are planning on switching out all of the fixtures so they match and putting in a different shade. Here's the after:

 Much lighter, brighter and it feels a lot more open. I had two photos from one of my trips to visit Santa Rosa Beach, FL and hung them in the bath to give it a little beach flair. The photographer is John Hollan Photography. My next project is either the guest room or the foyer/upstairs hallway, I'm not sure which one yet but I'll be sure to post before and after photo's!

-Kaitlin