Mmm... chocolate croissant

For Christmas, Mr. 9 got me a subscription to Real Simple and I am loving it. The latest issue had a great "Fake it, don't make it" recipe - Chocolate Croissants! Who doesn't love chocolate croissants?!! Anyhoo, they were SO simple to make and even better to devour. Check out the "recipe"!

Here is the photo from the Real Simple website:

SO funny!

see more crazy cat pics

Beauty on Paper

So I learned that our office is going to be moving to a different building. We took a tour of the space last week and I was a little bummed. Every office, except mine, has a continuous bank of windows along one wall. Well, my new office is the one where there is a 2 or 3 foot break in the windows. At first I was disappointed, but have come to realize that it may be the perfect place to display a print. SO, I hopped onto etsy and purchased this:





Isn't it gorgeous? It's from beauideal - please check out Jill's shop, she has sooo many wonderful things. I can't wait for the move so I can hang this beauty in my new space!

Don't judge me...

But we eat Ikea meatballs. More than eat them when we visit Ikea, we buy bags of frozen meatballs to take home with us.







We cooked up one bag of meatballs and it has literally lasted us through 3 to 4 meals. One night with genuine mashed potatoes (my favorite and surprisingly easy to make), another with bread and gravy sandwich stlye, another time by themselves with some peas. Now, granted, we don't have the most discriminating of palettes, but these meatballs are a life-saver.

Whoa...

Holy Hiatus, Batman...


Where did I go? I wish I had exciting stories to tell from my absence... unfortunately, that isn't the case. I've been up to the usual - working, being a newlywed, loving our cat. I wish I had more exciting things to share with you.


Instead, I will leave with a picture of me and the new hubby at a wedding we attended in January:

Mr. 9 found this great site called Geni that allows you to quickly and easily create a family tree and track your genealogy. It also lets you keep contact information for each member in order to communicate more easily - kind of like a geneological Friendster.

Here's an article about it in BusinessWeek.

This is what it looks like...

We spent a bit of time tonight mapping out our newly connected tree (we almost have two months of marriage under our belt).

Reconnecting

Earlier this week I received an e-mail from a friend from college who I lost touch with. It's been years since we last talked. We have both moved hundreds of miles away from where we went to school, but now we live only about an hour apart. So Mr. 9 and I are headed to see her and to meet her husband and 18 month old son - so exciting! Isn't it a strange but wonderful feeling to reconnect with someone from a different time in your life and to introduce them to your present world?

An early monkey meets its owner

Sock monkeys started for me when I learned that my sister was pregnant with her first child. I come from a line of crafty ladies who were planning quilts and knitted items - so I needed to come up with something that no one else was doing. Then it hit me - sock monkeys! My first prototype was completely hand sewn and a little rough around the edges. After a few more trials (with plenty of errors) I was pleased with my final product.

Here is a picture of my niece, A, with her very first sock monkey:

(she looks a little skeptical, but warmed up quickly)

Off the Hook

I dodged a major bullet today. Let me explain... Mr. 9's parents are coming into town for Thanksgiving which has had me a little stressed that I will need to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. Well, I can find my way around a kitchen and all, but I am not a Thanksgiving-dinner-with-all-the-fixings cook. Good news!!! We heard from Mr. 9's parents that we are joining other local relatives at a restaurant for Thanksgiving - saved!!! That is a huge sigh of relief...

Opera + Champagne + Chocolate = Amazing

Last night Mr. 9 and I got spiffied up and went to see the Boston Lyric Opera's La Boheme. Afterwards, we went to Finale in Coolidge Corner - a little champagne for me, a little Scotch for Mr. 9, and we shared this:

Here's a confession: I kind of LOVE champagne/sparkling wine. I ordered the sparkling wine flight at Finale - three glasses of different bubblies plus molten chocolate - pure BLISS!!!

iPod Inspiration

I mentioned in my last post that my previous iPod Nano's screen cracked and is out of commission. Now that I have a new, fancy Nano, I want to make sure to protect it. I have purchased a hard case for it and have been brainstorming a fabric pouch to carry it in. I experimented at my sewing machine this weekend and this is what I came up with:

iPod-tastic

As a wedding gift, my parents gave Chris and I iPods - I am now the proud owner of this little blue beauty.

Before these wonderful gifts we were a iPod-less household (which made our iPod sounddock pretty lonely). My first Nano's screen cracked and Mr. 9's 30 gig iPod up and died. All of a sudden, we have gone from 0 to 60, or 80 gigs as the case for Mr. 9 is. How exciting! Now I need to find tv shows and podcasts to download...

Introducing...

Here is the sock monkey I finished last night. I am really pleased with how it turned out - lots of my favorite green colors. If you are intersted in learning more, please visit my store.

Mr. & Mrs. 9

Mr. 9 and I were married just under a month ago - it seems like yesterday and at the same time a really long time ago. We are waiting to get our professional pictures back, but our friends and family have been sending some along. Mr. 9's cousin sent a few today and I thought I would share one - enjoy!

And here's a sneak peek of something that will post in my etsy shop tomorrow...

Shiny Happy Monkeys

This weekend Mr. 9 and I attended the wedding of two of our close friends, Tom and Amy (etsy user TinfoilTiara). As part of their reception at an art center, they asked guests to submit artwork to display. I decided that my contribution would be a pair of sock monkeys that look like the bride and groom. I am really pleased with they way they turned out and they were a hit at the wedding!