From Closet to Nursery

I've figured I've teased you long enough through various mentions, but I'm finally revealing our nursery! The whole room was what we called "The Big Closet" before because we mainly used it as a storage room. So when it came time to make it functional we had to donate a good amount of what was inside it as well as find places from much of it go go. But finally, it's done, and hopefully you think it's worth the wait!
This the the view to the left from when you first walk in the room. The original plan was to do a purple and yellow nursery, and while both colors are there, I found it wasn't the easiest to do. Turns out if you're buying something yellow it most likely has grey in it. And actually the one purple and yellow item I thought I found was actually purple and green when it shipped to my house. But even so I think we made it work, even if it is more of a purple, yellow and grey theme.
The crib was a Sundvik Crib from Ikea. The intent was for it to be white to match the rest of the furniture, but the boy realized once I brought it home to Louisiana that it was in fact black. Thankfully it isn't too much of an eyesore, and it's one of the first things the baby will grow out of. While it isn't the easiest to see, the sheet are purple gingham from Pottery Barn. The mobile was a gift from our registry from Target, and the matching blanket was also a gift from our registry. There's a crib skirt (also from Pottery Barn) that's edged in grey stripes, although this is unfortunately the best picture I took of it. In the corner of the photo you can just see our hand-me-down Mamaroo peaking out.
This is a Kallax shelf from Ikea, which is still pretty empty. One box on the bottom has blankets and extra crib sheets while the other has a few toys. Although I'm sure all four boxes will be full in no time. There's one shelf of stuffed animals, one that has my pump, at least for now, and the box on the top is where I'm putting mementos for now. It's also where our baby book is. Of course since this is a bookshelf, there's definitely a ton of books. There's 3 shelves of children's books, one of parenting book, and one that has our Harry Potter books for the baby to grow into. Also off to the left is our rock n play, and on the right is an empty basket that I'm sure will soon be filled with toys.
The top shelf is home to all type of nostalgia. The picture was a birthday gift to me from my MOH. You can't really tell, but inside each heart is a place I've lived from L.A. to MD (where I went to college) to LA. The train is from the boy's childhood as are the other random wooden toys on top. The teddy bear is the boy's from when he was little, and the cabbage patch doll (a girl named Bernard) is mine from when I was little. The stuffed dinosaur my mom actually made and used to sell versions of back before Etsy was a thing. Then also there's my crown from my baby shower.
While the color is a little off, the curtains are a dark purple, and one of the largest purple elements in the room. The toy chest actually was my FIL's from when he was little.
Now to my favorite part of the room, the little reading corner. The chair is a KACY Collection Morgan glider from Babies R Us gifted from my MIL and FIL. As for the books, I actually took all our board books and have them either in the basket on the floor or on the bottom shelf (which is a Ribba Ledge from Ikea). The top shelf has more of my personal favorites, plus a Hanukkah book since that's the current time of year. I may or may not have unrealistic dreams of changing that book out to reflect the season.
Just for fun, here's a better look at all the books on display, because I know you had to be curious.
To the right of the reading corner is a changing station. It's a Hemnes dresser from Ikea topped with a changing pad, with an attempt to bring in a bit more yellow. There's a pretty big bottle of hand sanitizer on the dresser which was a bit of a gag gift from one of the boy's co-workers since he has a reputation of being a bit of a germaphobe. Although I'm sure it will still come in handy.
This brings us back to the start of the room, where you can see our purple hanging wet back on the door. Our high chair is actually chilling out in a box still, plus there's the closest.
The closest is actually still pretty empty since pretty much all the clothes are in the dresser. I wouldn't get to excited about the hanging dresses revealing a secret, since instead those are my dresses from when I was a baby. If it's a boy we can put them away for the next time, but if it's a girl we're ready, since the gender is still a secret.

I'm sure this is likely far more than you ever wanted to see, but I at least had fun sharing it, and hopefully you enjoyed the little tour as well!

Cranberry Blast

If you look at my 101 in 1001 list, three of the items under cooking all involve Thanksgiving foods. Last year I made both the gingerbread crust and oyster stuffing (and even made them both again this year). But for something new, this year it was time for cranberry sauce.

I didn't have a specific recipe I wanted to try, but I was looking for something reminiscent of the one my mom used to make. I searched online and came across Alex Guarnaschelli's version, who you probably know as a judge on Food Network's Chopped. Hers had a similar feel towards what I remember. Luckily, while it may not have been an exact match, it is pretty similar to what I grew up having, so I have a feeling I'll be seeing it on my Thanksgiving table a number of times in years to come.

Alex Guarnaschelli's Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
1 pound fresh cranberries, washed and dried
2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 orange, zested and juiced

Directions
1. Combine the cranberries, sugar, and water. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Bring down to a simmer and add the cinnamon stick, allspice, and nutmeg. Stir and let simmer for 5 to 7 minutes. (Don't be like me and completely forget about the cinnamon stick! Thankfully I remembered to add it as I was starting to cool everything down, and I don't think you really noticed. But still, it's helpful if you remember all the ingredients!)
3. Add the orange zest and juice. Let cool before serving
I know a lot of people tend to use the canned cranberry sauce each year, but really when you see how easy it is to make, it's hard to justify not cooking it yourself. Actually, I can't ever remember having canned sauce since it was one thing my mom made every year. Although a version like this was her normal, she'd also mix it up at times and even molded her own.

What's your favorite way to enjoy cranberry sauce?

A Day in the Life...11/19/14

I've always loved reading Day in the Life posts and always have wanted to write on myself. (It's even on my 101 in 1001 list!) I really wanted to get one written before the baby arrives since I know life is about to change drastically and I'll look back on these days and wonder just what I did with all my time. But it wasn't till reading DIL posts by Amber, Amber, Nora that I finally felt inspired enough to make it happen myself. So here it is, a DIL of me, on November 19, 2014 at 37 weeks pregnant.

6:24AM - My alarm goes off and I hit snooze, then hit it again, and again...
7:15AM - The boy calls to tell me he just witnessed an accident around the corner from my work so I really need to get up and leave now, plus take a slightly different route than normal. Although honestly at this point I should be getting at out bed anyways.
7:25AM - Ten minutes later, I'm dressed and ready to go. As you can tell, I'm really not a morning person, and basically stay in bed till the last second possible to then get dressed as quickly as possible.
7:30AM - I throw a pumpkin English muffin in the toaster and start unloading the dishwasher while I'm waiting to finish. I never actually used to bother with breakfast, but once pregnant I realized I was so hungry I needed to. Then of course after getting gestational diabetes had to change up my routine from salted caramel or caramel apple granola bars to a healthier, but much more boring English muffin.
7:45AM - I knew it was cold outside, but didn't realize quite how cold till I saw all the frost on the grass. I realize this may not be that bad considering where you live, but for Louisiana in November, this is kind of crazy.

8:00AM - I'm at work ready to start the day.
9:33AM - I test my blood sugar two hours after eating. At 95, it's right on target. I was initially testing about 4 times a day, but as my results have stayed pretty consistent my doctor told me I was fine to cut back on it a little.
10:30AM - I snack on a handful of nuts because I'm hungry, but also since eating small snacks hopefully means I'll eat less at meals and keep my blood sugar down.

11:30AM - Wednesdays are my current doctor appointment day, so I'm sitting in the waiting room reading, although thankfully not for very long.
11:45AM - I actually think ultrasounds are kind of creepy, which is why till now I haven't shared any photos. But since this is my DIL post, and I did have an ultrasound this day, here's a glimpse of the baby-to-be.
12:00PM - I'm back to waiting, this time for the doctor, but keep myself busy reading about Kate and her pregnancy.
12:20PM - I grab a Subway sandwich in the lobby at the doctor's office and eat it while driving back to work.
3:00PM - Hungry again, so I munch of a few pieces of seaweed snack.

5:00PM - I head home for the day. Once home I'll work out, which basically just consists of some squats, pelvic thrusts, and leg lifts. I really only started doing this once I picked up gestational diabetes to keep my sugars down a little more, plus these exercises are supposed to be good for delivery too. Once finished I jump in the shower to clean up a bit.
6:20PM - I'm on my computer looking at my current blog stats, updating goodreads, and other general blogging stuff.
6:40PM - The boy and I have some pasta with his homemade arugula pesto along with a few pieces of rotisserie chicken.

7:00PM - I'm in bed watching this weeks episode of Survivor. The boy and I can't agree on tv shows, so most nights he's in the living room watching what he wants to watch and I'm in the bedroom watching what I want to watch.

8:00PM - I'm back on my computer, this time writing a review of Linger by Maggie Stiefvater.
9:00PM - Back in bed, to watch an episode of Nashville.
10:00PM - I make a cup of Sleepytime teat to drink on the couch while reading my current book (The Happiest Baby on the Block). Tea is pretty much the only think I use my Keurig for now since I cut out coffee early in my pregnancy, then had to cut out hot chocolate and apple cider when the whole gestational diabetes came along. But at least in a few weeks it should be back to normal use!

10:30 - Since I missed Top Chef when it aired at the same time as Nashville, I'm watching the repeat now.

11:30 - I'm off to bed, ready to start the whole thing again in a few hours.

Obviously I realize that I don't lead the most exciting of lives, but really, do most people on an average day? Except this is my current normal, and I'm happy to have it all written out, especially since someday not too long I'll likely look back with envy at all the time I used to spend on my computer or watching tv.

How often do you spend with downtime in the evenings? Or what are your thoughts on DIL posts?

Five on Friday (4)

I feel like my blogging has been kind of spotty lately. Yes, I'm still getting posts up, but they're pretty much all reviews or pregnancy updates. I kind of miss some of the more random life updates I used to post. But I figured that this would be a great excuse to link-up with The Good Life to share a few recent happenings.

1. A few weekends ago I had a much needed haircut. I didn't really do anything too extreme, really just cut off a lot of the dead ends, but still, there's nothing like a haircut that gives you an excuse to take selfies.
2. Although really the main reason I had my haircut was because I wanted it to look nice for my maternity photos. I haven't seen them all yet but my photographer, Melissa V Photography, who blogs at Little Mrs. Married, did post a sneak peak and so far I'm in love!
3. Speaking of the baby, the past few weeks I've gone through my old children's books sorting the ones I want to keep or giveaway. (Most of which have wound up as keep.) I'm in the process of tracking them all on goodreads , and while they aren't all listed yet I'm already close to 100. Not too shabby of a library for a baby that isn't born yet. Although considering how much I read, you can't be that surprised.
4.. This past weekend was my nephew's 5th birthday party. It's crazy to think that when I started this blog he wasn't alive yet, and how he's 5. Crazy how quickly time passes. I'm sure I'm going to blink and before you know it we'll have a 5-year-old of our own.
5. While it's been a while since I've mentioned my 101 in 1001 list I have been making progress. I can officially say I've completed 99) Have no dessert/sweets for 7 days, although not necessarily by choice. With my gestational diabetes I've basically cut out all desserts from my diet. Kind of depressing, especially when everyone one expects you to be eating ice cream all the time, but at least I've found a tiny silver lining to it.

What are some of the random happening in your life lately? And if you're here from 5 on Friday, be sure to say hello!

Halfway There

On January 1, 2013 I started my first 101 in 1001 list. It's set to end on September 29, 2015, which puts me just over halfway finished. So it would make sense to think I'm halfway toward completion, right? Except that isn't the case at all. Instead I've completely only 17 goals, which puts me just over 17%. But while I have a long way to go, I think it definitely time for me to check in on the goals I have managed to complete so far.

1. Give my blog a makeover
Which you can see currently. In case you're curious, this is what my blog used to look like before now.
10. Read 100 books
I actually didn't realize until I started this post, but this is officially complete. Since I've started this project I've read 101 books, and I'm sure I'll read a ton more before it's finished

15. Visit 10 new restaurants in the Baton Rouge area (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 9 10)
This one has actually been long completed. As for the favorite all of these restaurants, it would probably be Another Broken Egg Cafe which we've been back to twice since that initial visit.
36. Go on a girl's trip
This was my trip to Houston to see the Backstreet Boys which I did again recently, so this one, as well as the very next one, have actually been completed twice now.
43. Go to a Backstreet Boys concert

45. Have a toast for new year's
57. Make my mom's brisket
Technically the boy may have actually done this. But I was there supervising, so it counts in my book.
58. Make my family's oyster stuffing
This one though, I did make on my own.
60. Make my mom's "potato pie"
Another one where I may have mainly supervised.
64. Make a gingerbread crust
And following a similar patter, this was on my own.
66. Complete a project 365
I completed this one this first chance I could, and decided not to do it again in 2014 to keep things calmer. But I actually kind of miss it, and am thinking of going again in 2015. Plus at that point I'll have a pretty cute subject to take pictures of each day.

67. Buy and learn to use a DSLR camera
This definitely happened thanks to the generosity of this boy. And while I can't say I'm an expect, overall I do feel like I know what I'm doing with it.

70. Order our wedding album
75. Order wedding canvases
84. Host 2 major holidays (i.e. Thanksgiving or Passover) (1, 2)
I've actually hosted Passover a second time, for a total of 3 major holidays, so this has definitely been done.

85. Join a synagogue
This was actually far harder than it needed to be since my application was lost the first time. But I can say I'm officially a member of a synagogue now.

97. Go through clothes and donate the ones I'm no longer wearing
And that's it! Although seeing them all written out like this makes me feel a whole lot more accomplished. There's actually a few that while they aren't complete, I expect to be shortly. For example...
32. Visit 3 states (not counting Louisiana or California) (1, 2)
Since I'll be heading to Alabama in a few weeks for vacation, and that will officially be the third on the list.

74. Hang curtains throughout the house
Since I bought curtains for the last few rooms at Ikea. So now all I need it curtain rods to be done.

73. Clean out the "big closet"
This one better get done, since the "big closet" is always the future nursery, so there's a deadline here.

As for the goal that's furthest from completion...
11. Cut my to-read pile in half (from 72 to 38 books
Since I've instead over doubled my to-read pile to a total of 167 books!

Have you ever attempted a 101 in 1001 list? How close did you come to completing it?

Five on Friday (3)

I feel like I haven't been that great about blogging lately and a lot of little things seemed to slip through the cracks. So I decided to link up with Five on Friday to start to catch back up!

1. The boy and I made it back to Another Broken Egg cafe, which I think has become our favorite brunch location. Once again we split an order of their biscuit beignets, then I had pancakes with blackberries with a side of sausage and a scrambled egg.
2. Baton Rouge officially has a Costco and the boy and I celebrated with our first Costco run. Now while there's not a lot of thing we need in bulk with just the two of us we still had no problem spending a couple hundred there!
3. I made my mom's potato pie, which was number 60 on my 101 in 1001. Of course by I made, I mean the boy made and I supervised, but that's practically the same thing, right? (And for those curious the recipe came from Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells.)
4. Speaking of my 101 in 1001 list I also joined a synagogue which is number 85 on the list. Of course my time's more than halfway finished, and I'm nowhere near halfway completed, but I'm hoping to have a post up soon with more details on that.
5. Last fall I was obsessed with Alex & Sierra on X-Factor and was so excited to see they released their new single. This isn't the official video, but instead the lyric video. Although I do think the puppets are adorable and don't think they need anything else. Plus the song is incredibly catchy and I can't stop singing it!

What are 5 things that you want to catch me up on in your life currently?

Wine & Mexican

Like most other city, January is home to restaurant week in Baton Rouge. The boy and I have never taken part, mainly because I never hear about it till after it's over. This year though we had warning and made a point to make it happen.

I went through the list of restaurants looking for a new place to try where we'd both have options that amused us. The choice we made was Bin 77, which technically was new to both of us, although I had been there before under a different name.

It's actually more of a wine bar, but they decided to take a bit of a Mexican twists on their restaurant week. So while we did have the restaurant's food, it wasn't the wine and appetizers that you'd normally have while there.

The boy and I both had the braised rabbit and duck carnitas. They came stuffed with foie gras, chestnut-thickened green mole, spiced quince, roasted broccolin, and duck skin cracklin. The main reason I order this was because it came with foie gras, but while it was really good, you couldn't really taste the foie gras, which was a bit of a disappointment.
For my main dish I went with adobe crusted ahi tuna with wilted saffron endive, creamy masa, baby bok choy, smoked corn & anchovy sofrito. Again, the tuna was good, but not amazing. But far the better part of this dish was all the vegetables underneath.
The boy's choice, which you can see in the back, was a lava rock aged New York strip with short rib and manzanilla olive rillette, chanterelle-oxtail rellenas & celery root chuleta. Again with his dish the best part was the sides, and looking back I think I would have preferred his steak to my fish.
Since the boy isn't a fan of desserts, I was able to enjoy both of the options offered. Above was their chocolate plantain bread pudding with candied walnuts, raw honey comb, saffron simple syrup & cinnamon-rum whipped cream. In the photo below was a slice of dos leches cake with goat cheese & cranberry jam, blood orange gel & pistachio gelato. Unfortunately though, I wasn't a huge fan of either item. Both were good, and there were items that I loved, especially the gelato, but neither was one I'd see myself ordering again.
Looking back, I made it sound as if it was a disappointing night. Except it wasn't really. We probably did go into this with high expectations, and there were a lot of aspects that we really liked. But next time we go back we'll probably stick to wine and appetizers, and next year again we'll likely want to try out someplace new for restaurant week.

Do you have restaurant week where you live? If so, have you ever taken part?