words for the weekend

oxx Dion

The Hunt

It was too early for anyone to be up on a Sunday.  But that's the thing about kids, they can smell a special day ahead while they're sleeping.  As we rubbed the sleep out of our eyes and tried to get on the little man's energy level, he let out a shriek.  "I see eggs daddy," he giggled as he looked out our french doors to the backyard.  

And from that moment the hunt was on. 

He zoomed around the backyard on the most joyous mission I have ever seen.  I tried to remind myself to snap a few frames, because mainly I was in such awe of his wonder and excitement.   Moments like these make me thankful to be a mom, and want to freeze time forever.  

As he looked down a his bucket surveying the loot he beamed, "mama it's magic!"  And I melted into a puddle in the grass.

 Happy Easter to you and yours! 

 oxx Dion

My Cure

"The cure for anything is salt water- sweat, tears, or the sea." 

-Isak Dinesen

I find one or a combination of these to always be my cure.  

oxx Dion

Addicted

"Hi my name is Dion and I'm addicted to Pinterest."
"Hi Dion".....


I know I'm a bit late to the whole Pinterest phenomenon, but friends I still have to gush about my new love.  I just want to kiss whoever created it.  It has changed my life.  Fo real.

from my For the Haven board

See I've been collecting different forms of inspiration all my life.  From the colorful and unique buttons I would hoard at my mother's clothing showroom in New York as a wee tot, to the many (many many) notebooks and journals I filled in high school and college.  Cut to two days ago, I was dragging images to an unorganized desktop folder, bookmarking things I would never find again, and tearing sheets out of magazines.  Pinterest is like the love child of Martha Stewart and the blog world.  It's ridiculously organized and web etiquette remains intact.  Proper credit is given to each image and you can even click on the image to be brought to the article, blog post etc. it came from.  

from my Take it Outside board

I crave visual stimulation constantly, so in short Pinterest is food for my soul.  It is the sister I never had.  When I get overwhelmed with the, ahem, joys of motherhood, it is my happy place.  I calms me and reminds me of my identity outside of being a mom.  And yes I may need a twelve step program here shortly because I am obsessed!  

from my Inspired board

If you would like to see what's making me tick lately check out my boards here.

from My Style board

Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to my lover, I've spent too much of T's valuable nap time writing this post ;o)

oxx Dion

Oatmeal Chocolate Cherry Cookies

It was early Sunday morning and T refused to get out of his pj's.  Fine, I thought, I'm not getting out of mine either; and what's more, lets make this a lazy Sunday funday.  Gorgeous light streamed in through the kitchen window, making the it the only room I wanted to be in at that moment.  So clad in said pj's we proceeded to make some of the best. cookies. ever.  No really they're easy, crowd pleasers that rock so what are you waiting for? 

Oatmeal Chocolate Cherry Cookies

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

(not because the recipe needed changing, just used what I had on hand and to suit our tastes.  I'm sure this recipe, like all her recipes, is perfect)

you will need:
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick) at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1 cup steel cut oats
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup chopped unsweetened dried cherries

I wash out glass jars from pasta sauce etc. and use them to store pantry items, like the oats in the bottom right.  A great way to reuse and store your food in safe glass containers instead of plastic, two things I'm trying to do more of.  

Preheat the oven to 350°.  With an electric mixer, beat the butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy.  Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla.  Beat a few minutes until well mixed.  Add the eggs and mix just to include in the batter.  In another bowl add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice and stir well with a metal whisk.  Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture with the mixer on low.  Once mixed in, add the second half.  Next stir in the oats, chocolate chips, cherries and almonds.   

Use a tablespoon to drop the dough onto a greased cookie sheet, spacing them about two inches apart.   

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden.  

Remove from the oven and let cool for one minute.  Then transfer to a rack to completely cool.  Store at room temperature in an air tight container.  

Needless to say they were a hit.

This recipe yields about 3 dozen cookies.  Next time I will try flash freezing some of the dough.  In case your wondering this is done by dropping the dough with a tablespoon onto the cookie sheet and then storing the sheet in the freezer until firm.  Then transfer the frozen dough pieces to a freezer bag.  This will help with the tons of cookies that are baked and eaten in too short a time (our small house hold doesn't need three dozen cookies!)  And I can bake a few off at a time for fresh cookies wheneva!  When baking the frozen dough, adjust your cooking time, cookies will need a little longer to golden.

oxx Dion

Craving

Have you been to Etsy.com?  The amazing marketplace where you can purchase art, handmade wares and vintage... no?  Well you must check it out, yesterday!  I particularly love all the affordable art.  I am crushing on the seller thewheatfield.  Her work is whimsical and inspiring.  I love it in a kitchen, a kid's room, on a collage wall... anywhere you want a little splash of happy!

I am particularly loving this one.  And love what the artist says about it: 

"I absolutely love this quote by Emerson...so I decided to illustrate it! I made this painting with the intent of reminding others that life is for living... the air is for drinking! There is only NOW, so stop waiting, and start living!"  

oxx Dion

2⅔

I have realized that there will be several poignant, watershed moments as T grows up.  Suddenly the first has smacked me in the face.  He is no longer a baby in any way... he is pure boy.  At exactly 2⅔ years old it has happened.  There hasn't been any bottles, diapers, or baby fat in a while.  This change is completely metaphysical.  Something has altered in his attitude, his speech, his grasp on the universe.  I am at once in awe and begging for it to please  s l o w  d o w n.  

I pulled out my Canon 5d and decided to experiment with using my in camera settings.  I went with monochrome (which is black & white) and +1 sharpness and +1 contrast.  I had never used this before and I loved it.  I've always loved b&w from my old shooting film and working in the darkroom days.  If I know this is the look I'm after it is so much faster than having to convert the pictures in post.  I want to spend as little time editing as possible, I love photography because I want to take pictures... not sit with photoshop for hours!  A very slight curve for contrast and these images were good to go, though the out of camera shots were very acceptable.  

T's hair is doing crazy things, but that's the norm so whatcha gonna do?

nature lover.  those lashes and cheeks kill me.

For the second half of the shoot I bumped my ISO up to 1600 to see if it would achieve an old film-like grain.  Again I know this can be done in post but wanted to see what I could get straight out of camera.  I love what it did to the grain in the wood fence, such texture!  I may try this same experiment with my old canon rebel soon (which is not nearly as good at handling noise and may look way more grainy/ old filmish)

So silly and so much boy energy!

oxx Dion