It’s no secret our prego with a boy and a girl (yippee!) friend Dana likes our Molly Chocolate chips.  Salt and chocolate are two of her favorites.  And who knows… maybe one twin will love chocolate and one with love salt.  How awesome would that be?

Anyway, making Dana the cookies has kind of become something that will consistantly make her happy during this pregnancy.  And, since making her cookies means that I will get to eat a few before giving them away… I am often very happy to oblige.

Now, these chocolate chips should not be taken as just any old cookie.  They seriously are the best chocolate chips you will ever eat.  I used to swear by my Martha chewies.  Then one day I read this post by one of my favorite bloggers, Molly, aka Orangette.

That’s when these delicious beauties came into my life.

And it has revoltionized my baking.  The key to the recipe is really the fact that the batter sits in the fridge for 40+ hours.  If you taste the batter right after you make the dough, its salty and not great.  However, after 40 hours… the dough is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted.

Anyway,  you can find the recipe HERE for these amazing cookies.

Now, after you have made the cookies a few times… you might look for a new thing to knock your socks off.  And the socks of friends, especially those pregnant with twins.

In comes the Brookie.

Yes, I said Brookie.

We learned of it from Baked. 

Its a cookie with a brownie around it.  It is heaven when your cookie is the Molly Chocolate Chips.

Make both brownie batter and cookie dough.  refridgerate both for 30 min pre baking.  Then, put the brownie batter in your cupcake tins.  Finally, scoop one nice chunk of dough into the brownie batter.  Sprinkle with salt… and bake for about 20 min or until the knife comes out clean of the brownie portion.

I don’t even know what more to say about this.

besides

amazement

fit for no words or mouthwatering adjectives.

I know the NYT Modernist Dollhouse has been making the rounds lately….

But, as some googling has told me, there is a ton of people out there that are in love with mini modernism!

Gosh, I might need a dollhouse.

via…..here

How awesome are mini Eames chairs???

both via this great blog.

found here.

and yes, all these are dollhouses.

A few weekends ago now {seriously where does the time go???}  I took a little trip to New Jersey.   (remember my trips in Christmas and during beach going season?)

An awesome, longtime friend is getting married soon and has so kindly asked me to be a bridesmaid!   The weekend was the necessary pre-wedding festivities all rolled into one jam-packed celebratory time.  While I look back and think gosh, that was exhausting, it was also just really great.  It’s been far too long.. holidays, work, and obligations just always seems to get in the way when we both migrate back to NJ during the year.  We often squeeze in lunch, but it always leaves me wanting  just a bit more time to really catch up… more then just the basics of life.  So, while I totally am excited for Angie to marry someone great like Chris, I am also excited that this gives us more time to see each other this year!  It makes me miss the days of high school lunch and getting ice cream late at night and high school football games and summer days down the shore.

So now where was I.  ..  Oh, yeah, I went to NJ and there was a secret bachelorette and a secret bridal shower.  Now, before Angie thinks that I am using this post to publish pictures of her bachelorette….. let me just tell you, I’m not!  {sheesh, i mean my MOM reads this blog, people!}  … A big sigh of relief just was felt on the east coast…

ha

{ps, do you ever laugh at your own jokes or is that just me?}

What I want to show you are some projects I worked on for the bride-to-be.  I secretly was crafting in the evenings and said gosh I cannot wait to blog about this!

First things first.. invitations.  I admit, I am pretty in love with making invitations these days.  All the inDesign I know and love, mixed with ample cutting and gluing.

Most of these invites came from an early idea amongst the bridesmaids to incorporate recipe cards into the shower.  We wanted the bride to have access to favorite dishes from family and friends… all handwritten out just for her.

That combined with my sketch of a dinner party and a trip to Paper Zone….

The recipe cards pull out from the inside flap.

Once at the shower, all the cards were placed in a recipe box made especially for  the bride – to – be by BullFrog Laserworks on etsy.

I am pretty in love with them.

And then, speaking of in love with and etsy shopping….

I had a pretty talented co-worker/friend/etsy shop owner/baby mama make this apron… (as modeled by the bride-to-be)

Oh, Amy Butler fabric, I love thee.  And the ruffles are pretty much my absolute favorite.  Thanks Jen!

And last, but certainly not least… I got my roving and needle.  Needlefelted birdies have become some of my favorite things to make lately.  These ones are bride and groom style. {kudos to b, the master veil sewer after i had a few failed attempts!} 

And critters that are guaranteed not to attack.

ha.  gosh, I am so funny lately!

Seriously, though, huge thanks goes out to the bride-to-be for including me in her very special-est of days!

sorry we have been a little missing in action lately.

between us both having tons to do at work, and tons to do in our backyard, and tons to do in planning and packing for our looming vacay….

we’ve been busy is kind of an understatement.

plus i have a case of the mondays so so bad today.  which i seriously need to snap out of, because i have a to do list so long I had to get a second cup of coffee just to get the energy to finish writing it.

ha

This week is seriously going to make me excited for traveling. All we have to do is sit back, relax, and enjoy our flight(s).

A few weeks ago I flew home and was greeted by Mt Rainier, my favorite!

Well, in some ways its been both slower than expected and quicker at the same time. At first we thought we were going to have to import soil for planting our raised beds. However, after digging only about an  eighth of the bed, we’ve been able to completely fill our deep dahlia bed and the adjacent raspberry bed. So, hopefully next weekend will be prime digging weather and we’ll be able to make more progress on patio excavation.

Firewood is about halfway chopped (thanks to Jonathan!), the planter against the house is done and planted, dahlias are planted, raspberries are planted, and the 3rd raised bed is in place.

Also (look to the left!) our rainbarrel is installed. It filled during the first rainstorm and only took about 2 hours to get that way, crazy! so, now we just need something to water.

Onward!

Still to do:

1. Build and install 4th bed

2. Finish patio excavation

3. Place gravel and sand for patio install

4. Lay pavers (we have purchased about 60/200 that we will need)

5. Level out grass (there are several large holes from the tree falling) and plant new grass seed (this will have to be after our trip so we’re home to water it)

[Also - look how well the hostas transplanted ]