St. Patrick's Day Festivities

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe St. Patricks Day! We saw lots of people out and about with their green on and it always makes me happy.  My mother is 100% Irish so since we were young we were wearing green on March 17th.  Of course I dressed Lily up in green too!

Our holiday wouldn't have been complete without a little corn beef and cabbage- so naturally I whipped some up!  It turned out to be amazing and even Lily enjoyed it :)  My husband made a delicious horseradish cream sauce (recipe can be found here!)

The best part about corn beef is that we have leftovers for days.  The more I cook, the more I realize I'd love to explore my heritage more through cooking.  I know my mother is Irish and my father is Polish (give me a pierogie any day of the week.)  I'd love to dig up a great borscht recipe or maybe some Irish colcannon.  Any tips would be appreciated and welcomed!

A DIY Scrub for You

I feel bad.  I haven't put up a new post in a long time and for whatever reason I feel like I should give my readers (if there are any out there) a gift in order to make up for my absence.  I could list the reasons why I haven't been able to post, but they're boring and I won't bore you with that!

SO- what I have done is documented my latest beauty regimen that seems to work like a charm!  This winter has been terrible on my skin and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a product that may or may not work.  This led me to get creative in my kitchen and make my own facial scrub!

not mine..but you get the idea.

Take a look at my DIY Body Scrub:

What You'll Need

• a small mason jar or glass container for storing your scrub
• white sugar
• almond oil
• lavender essential oil (for scent- you can use mint, lemon, lavender or a scent of your preference!)

Instructions

• Combine (1) cup of white sugar with (1/2) cup of almond oil.  Make sure they are both combined well. 
• Add two to three drops of your essential oil and mix well. 
• Refrigerate overnight for best results.  It feels good to have the cold exfoliation clean your pores.

I wasn't able to take pictures as I really was just winging it.  I compare this scrub to others and found that I spent $5 while other facial scrubs can run upwards of $40!  

If you do end up making a scrub- send me a picture!  I'd be happy to post it here!

Photo Credit: Symbolic Imports via Compfight cc

So Cute!

Here's a mid-week pick me up! How adorable!

To Grain or Not to Grain?

Over the course of the holiday season and the combination of the colder weather, my eating habits have strayed a little off course.  It was easier for me to just order a pizza instead of making dinner.  I think we've all found ourselves guilty of this at one point or another (so I'll try not to feel TOO guilty about it.)

I need to get myself, and our family, back on track.  Lily has always been a vegetable lover and it's easy to incorporate them into meals.  Sometimes I'll blend spinach, a banana, an apple with a little almond milk as her "smoothie" and she loves it!

Of course I've been doing a lot of research online about making our diets even healthier and I came across the "paleo" diet.  Well, it's not necessarily a diet, but a way of eating. There's a wealth of information about it online and sometimes it gets to be too hard to process.

The main premise of paleo is to avoid processed grains, sugars, legumes and dairy. When I first stumbled upon it, I was a bit taken aback.  How could people eat this way?? WHAT do these people eat?

There is a method to the madness, and I'm certainly not able to explain why or how, but it did make me question our family's eating habits.  Here is a REALLY good explanation here.  A typical weekday dinner usually looks a lot like this:

yum?

I've started to question if all of the pasta and bread we consume on a regular basis is doing us any favors.  I try to stay away from foods high in fat and sugar, but could bread be as bad as people are saying?

I have started by adding more vegetables back into our diet.  I've always loved kale and made this awesome kale salad for a dinner side yesterday with chicken and a sweet potato.

Do you eat within the paleo guidelines?  I'd love feedback...or advice!

Photo Credit: the_babyladies via Compfight cc

Hamburger Cupcakes

My husband is a HUGE football fan.  His second favorite sport is hockey and then probably basketball.  If he's really bored he'll turn to the golf channel (but that's definitely a last resort.)

We were invited to our friend Deb and Ken's house this past weekend and I decided to make cheeseburgers.  Just not the type of cheeseburgers you're thinking of.

yum!

I had seen this hamburger cupcake recipe on DuncanHines.com and have been looking for a reason to try it for quite some time.  I knew as soon as Deb called and asked me to bake I had the perfect dessert!

adding the "cheese" and "lettuce"

they were a hit!

Family Vacation

For one of my Christmas gifts my husband surprised me with a gift that I NEVER would have expected- a vacation.  He was able to take time off from work and book our rental home without me knowing ANYTHING...which was kind of a shock!

This past week we made our way to the Bahamas.  It was so nice to be in the warm weather, bright sunshine and enjoying some downtime.  It's amazing with a little getaway will do to refresh your mind after the holidays.  Take a peek of the picture I snapped from one of our flights:

Just breathtaking!

This was also Lily's first time on a plane which was VERY exciting.  I'm not sure she understood what was going on, and we did have a little bit of trouble during take off (yes, we were those people with the screaming baby.)  But we did manage to calm her nerves and she was fine for the second flight.

Since we rented a house we didn't have childcare services which is what I preferred.  If we went out to dinner, it was with Lily.  This kept things pretty low-key and I wouldn't have asked for anything different.  We spent most of our time on the beach and exploring the little island of Green Turtle Cay.

Beautiful

It was wonderful to get away and spend some time with my husband and Lily.  We needed a little break from it all after the holidays and this really "hit the spot."

Guest Post: How to Take Better Baby Pictures!

Two posts in 1 day? I know. I know.  But this second post is a good one :)

I was fortunate enough to receive a guest post from my blog friend Vanessa over at her WONDERFUL photography blog that you can find here at VanessaSchrotenboer.com. Take a peek at her tips for taking better baby pictures.

Until your child can sit up and run around you may feel like all your images of your wee one look the same. Plopping them on the couch here and there is great but when they are constantly falling over it may be hard to capture the image you desire to grab. Below I am sharing 5 tips that have helped me when taking pictures of our little boy!

And p.s. you can use these tips to photograph your children at any age.

1. Find the light!! To me it's the MOST important part of your image- beside the sweet baby! So find: Big windows, glass doors, open your blinds do what you can to let the light shine in your home. We have awesome light that streams in through our back glass door. I love taking pictures in that area because I know it will provide us with some yummy light.

This doesn't mean every image you take needs to be posed in this spot that would get old! Instead, put their toys, blanket etc in the spot that has great light and then when you're ready to take a picture, they are in the location you want them to be without moving them out of their element. I don't set baby G facing the light directly. I like to turn him at about a 45 degree angle otherwise I find the light too harsh!

2. Get on their level! Lay on the ground and see the world from their view! This helps you have a variety of images from different angles. Down low, above, etc! But my favorite is to lay on the ground and talk and laugh with my baby!

 

3. Don't forget the details! Do you not just stare at your baby's face all day? Their cute nose, tiny hands, squishy belly! I could go on... I love to take pictures of these parts to remind me of his sweetness! Of course I love his face but I try to capture all aspects of him. Will he not stay this little forever? Please tell me yes...

4.  Rule of thirds! In order to make your images more dynamic and interesting don't always place your baby in the center of your image.  Mix it up and take a picture with your child on either the right or left side of the frame! Rule of thirds helps show off the environment, show movement and change it up from the typical center face shot!

 5. Capture parts of your day! Posed pictured are great as well but don't forget those moments that remind you of YOUR life with your babe- catch them sleeping in their crib, munching on their breakfast, practicing tummy time, cuddles with Dad, out for walk, getting a diaper change, playing with a pet or their favorite toys! Those are the moments that make my heart swell!

Lastly, keep your camera close by, keep shooting and happy picture taking!

About Vanessa:

Vanessa Schrotenboer is a blogger who shares many aspects of her life from her journey into motherhood, portrait and wedding photography as well as

beauty and lifestyle tips! She enjoys blogging, photography and a warm cup of hot chocolate. To connect with Vanessa check out her blog or her twitter, @vschrotenboer.