Hershey

Day two of my trip to Pennsylvania took me to a place where I swear I gained 5 pounds just entering town! :)  Mmmmm.... Hershey.  I can't wait to go back!!! I'm glad my brother and sister-in-law have now moved here.  What's not to love about a town that has these for light fixtures?

And roads named Cocoa and Chocolate?!  We started our day in Hershey with a visit to Hershey Gardens. 

In a word? Gorgeous!  And of course, I took a ton of pictures.  Here are just few of my favorites I took at the gardens....

See full size photos in my album here.

And my favorite flower picture:

I loved the perfect spiral in the middle.  Isn't it cool?!

After wandering around Hershey Gardens, we ate lunch and headed over to the Hershey Story.  We took a class at the Chocolate Labs....

Aren't the hats awesome?! lol

Where we learned how to taste chocolate and made our own candy bars:

My brother couldn't control himself and ate his upon walking out of the chocolate lab when he knew we were going to do this next....

Chocolate tasting.  He got his own tray.  Amy and I shared one.  And to quote my brother "he was going to earn his stomach ache!"  It was soooooo tasty.  I could seriously live on nothing but the Java region chocolate in liquid form.  Like drinking caramel vanilla chocolate.  Heavenly.  I know exactly where I will be heading after arriving at my brother's house next time I go visit!! :)

The rest of the Hershey Story is a big museum about how Hershey's chocolate came to be.  Really nice museum:

The picture is really blurry, but you can see some of the cool displays like the 12 foot crystal lamp!

After Hershey Story, we headed over to Chocolate World... the "sweetest place on Earth."  There was a LOT of chocolate there!!  We taunted my poor husband with pics like this:

This is just one small corner of the store!!! yikes!!!! :)

And then I bought some yummy stuff to send home to him.

I look definitely look forward to going back to Hershey and seeing some of the stuff I missed including Hershey Park and ZooAmerica.  Up next in my trip recap will be the Battlefield Tour -- Gettysburg, Valley Forge and Brandywine!

If you missed my first day, you can read about it here.

Thanks for hanging in for all the pics!! :)

Recipe #13: Reese's Peanut Butter Brownies

Photo credit and recipe here: FabBites.

You must make these.  ASAP.  They are sooooo YUMMY!!  I got no pictures of the ones I made... we ate them too fast!!!  Instead of a brownie mix, I just used a basic cocoa brownie mix from my favorite old school cookbook:

Go get this cookbook you don't have it.  It's awesome. You'll thank me for this one too.  :)

Just make sure you have some milk.  And that you have time to put in an extra hour at the gym too!

Compiling my pictures from Hershey... hoping to post them this week!  Thanks for all the love and feedback on my first day in Philadelphia.  Have a great week everyone!! :)

I ♥ Philly!

First I have to say it feels like it took me forever to get this posted!!  Okay, now that I've got that out of my system....

I've been home from my long vacation in Pennsylvania visiting my brother Tom and sister-in-law Amy for a couple of weeks now (okay, more like a month... but it seems like yesterday!).  As I expected, I had a great time!!!  Because I was gone for so long and took over a 1,000 pictures, I thought it would be better to break up my travels a little bit by posting one little bit at a time over the next week or two.  So here goes nothing...

I arrived in Philadelphia at 7 am after a redeye flight from California.  Three hours of sleep on a plane is not a great thing!  Kinda random story about the flight there.  I woke up about an hour from landing to see panicking flight attendants giving oxygen to a passenger three rows in front of me.  She started throwing up.  It didn't look too good.  I wasn't surprised that they asked everyone to stay seated once we landed to get the paramedics to her.  The paramedics got delayed so they ended up getting everyone off the plane.   I felt bad for her and hope she's okay! 

Once I finally got off the plane and headed out of the airport, my brother picked me up and we headed into Philly for breakfast and all the touristy stuff in the historic part of town.  I couldn't wait!! 

We ate breakfast at Sabrina's Cafe, thanks to a recommendation from Tom & Amy's friend Jason.  So good! (Thanks Jason!!)

Tom's Sawyer "Lon Con" Cakes (don't ask, I have no clue why the name?!).  Pumpkin pancakes with lemon cake topping, white chocolate chips, strawberry-mint butter, strawberries, blueberries and strawberry-orange syrup.  Random combo, but extremely tasty!

I opted for Caramelized Challah French Toast with maple syrup and a side of bacon.  So tasty!!

After the fantastic food (not a crumb left on either plate!), we headed over to Independence Hall and the surrounding area.  I could go on and on about how amazing it was to be here!  So I'll spare you all the words and show you the pictures of all that we saw that day....

Independence Hall.  The Liberty Bell is in the building to the right. 

The US Mint doesn't allow photos inside, so this was the outside. The security guard standing just off camera to the left was hilarious and had us laughing! :)

The grave of Ben Franklin.  We couldn't figure out why people toss coins on it??  Anyone??

The cemetary that has Ben Franklin's grave.  It's across the street from Independence Hall.  All the gravestones were seriously decaying but it is a beautiful park. (I should mention this is not the first time I have visited and photographed a cemetary while on vacation.  On the east coast... odd habit? Anyone else a cemetary tourist like me?!)

The Liberty Bell!  The museum is so beautiful with all the natural daylight.  Best part of the display of the Bell is that you are about 2 feet away from it and the only thing behind it is a two story plexiglass wall overlooking Independence Hall.

Cheesesteak for lunch.... more on the food in a separate post soon.  It was YUMMY and had Cheez Whiz.  Yes, I broke down and ate the stuff.... I paid for it later too! :)

We walked to get our lunch and saw these beautiful streets on our way back and forth to Independence Hall.

Washington Square.... would you believe that this park is actually a mass grave from the Revolutionary War?

The memorial for the park -- the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.

National Portrait Gallery at Philadelphia.

Inside of the Gallery... hundreds of original portraits by Charles Peale.  He painted all the men he saw as important political figures in the Revolution.  He was actually the first artist to paint George Washington.

Our touristy trip ended with a tour of Independence Hall.  The Tour Guide was sarcastic and ruled over the noisy fieldtrip kids with an iron fist.  No joke!  It was awesome.... We had a good laugh at his "if you don't zip it, I'll end this tour right now" speech!

Meeting room of the Continental Congress (original furniture and layout!).  I got chills... it's really amazing to stand in that room.

Directly opposite the meeting room is this room - the original Supreme Court!

And finally, my first scrapbook layout for the trip album:

More info on the Flamingo Scraps blog.

This was just my first day in Philadelphia, we came back to see the landmarks in downtown. Rocky... the stairs... the Love sculpture and City Hall!

Thanks for hanging in for this long post. I'll try to make the next ones shorter! I'll be back soon with posts about Hershey, DC and all the places in-between. :)

Enjoying Summer

How can you not enjoy the summer with blue skies like this in the middle of the day?  Cool ocean breezes.....  Okay, they are really daily gale force winds, but I like to convince myself they are breezes! :)  So far I've been enjoying a lazy summer with Brian on the weekends and everything else has been hectic and frantic during the week!

So far we haven't gotten outdoors as much as we'd like, but we've managed to see this:

Me encanta Buzz Lightyear en español!!

We also managed to make it back to the theater the next weekend to see this:

Of course, I ♥ed the books more, but the movies have been excellent!

We've enjoyed going to the Farmer's Market here in town.  The nectarines and plums have been delicious!

I even managed to make my first ever batch of strawberry jam from those strawberries and successfully can it! :)

And here are a few things I've made so far this summer:

A button tree I plan to display at Christmas.

And a digi layout for the nephew's album.

What's in store for the rest of our summer?  LOTS of exciting stuff!!  Back soon to share some really exciting stuff and I'm almost ready to post a few things about my trip to Pennsylvania.  Hope you are enjoying your summer so far! :)

Happy 4th of July... and 7 things....

Happy 4th of July!  I celebrated by hanging out at home with Brian, making my first ever batch of jam (strawberry - yum!) and we're probably going to go by the neighbors house in a little while to say hi.  Hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend!

So last week, Heather tagged me on her blog. Heather and I have been friends for years thanks to our scrappin' addictions -- both digi and paper.  We're part of a small crowd Heather and I... most people seem to do one or another! Go check out her blog if you get a chance - I enjoy reading about her adventures in raising her kids and seeing her beautiful work. :)

“This award is to recognize good design, writing, photos, etc.; to network amongst other bloggers; inspire content ideas, etc.

Conditions of the award stipulate that I need to share seven things about myself and then pass on this award to other wonderful bloggers.”

So here are my seven things:

1.  I'm a Pieces who hates water.  Odd right?  I don't like being in water, near water or really even drinking water.  I drink water because I have to.  And I'm a terrible swimmer.  That said, I do love taking showers and I usually take two a day.  One before leaving to go to work, one before bed.

2.  If I won the lottery, I'd pay off the mortgage, finish our house and travel the world.  Not necessarily in that order.

3. I'm a homebody.  Nothing better than no plans and a weekend at home!  But that rarely happens.  Usually there is something planned.  Even if we are at home!

4. I want to move back to the Sacramento area, but I wish we could pick up our entire house and move it with us.  And our neighbors.  And our jobs.  Not possible. sigh.

5.  I have a major sweet tooth and I struggle some days to control it!  In my life, I best had it under control in college.... go figure.  When your eating habits are supposed to be at their worst.

6.  I've done most crafts you can think of.  Only a few remain that I have not.... candle making and soap making are actually the only ones that come to mind.

7. As much as I love to travel, I still have not travelled internationally.  I don't even have my passport!  Brian and I need to rectify this situation soon I think! :)

Those are my 7 things!   Now I’m tagging:

1. Anna
2. Megan
3. Nancy (I think this means you're double tagged now!)
4. Kiersten
5. Julie ;)
6. Nati
And really, anyone who is reading this.... please consider yourself tagged!  I'd love to read a few random things about everyone!

30 by 30: June Progress Report

Hard to believe the year is already halfway gone.  Still working away at this and making lots of progress in some areas, not so much in others!



Lots of progress made on this item thanks to two trips back and forth to the east coast!

1.  Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin
2.  Something Blue by Emily Griffin
3.  Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
4.  The Last Song by Nicolas Sparks -- great story, know the movie won't live up to it (even though it was written first!)
5.  Hero at Large by Janet Evanovich  -- cute, fun story that I grabbed at the airport on the way home
6.  The Choice by Nicolas Sparks -- total tearjerker, what a beautiful love story
7.  The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger -- dying to see the movie now, but absolutely no way it will be as good as the book.  Which you should read if you haven't!
8.  Baby Proof by Emily Griffin -- fun, quick read.  Not as good as her first two books.



Lots of papercrafting and traveling the first half of the year... time to catch up.
Completed:

1. Bookmarks
2. Knit hat for Brian
3. Christmas Cards
4. Scarf for my sister's Christmas gift
5. Reorganize Master Closet
6. Reorganize Guest Bedroom closet (including reorganizing all wrapping paper + wrapping supplies)
7. Decorate (and undecorate) house for Christmas
8. Reclaimed Window Mirror (joint project with Brian)
9. January 2010 Project 365
10. February 2010 Project 365
11. Office/Craft Room closet -- gut and remodel (helped Brian with building it out)
12. Reorganize Office/Craft Room closet (once remodel was complete!)
13. Scarf for Nancy
14. Amy's quilt
15. Painting of exterior of house (mostly Brian's project, but I spent a weekend painting out some trim on the front and painting our door into the garage from the backyard)
16. Rearrange living room furniture (doesn't sound like much, but this an evening of hard work with Brian!)
17. 48 Scrapbooking pages and 14 cards completed in 6 months.  (Still a little bit to go to hit my goals of 150 pages and 25 cards!)

Still in progress:
18. Christmas Elf Hat for my new 2nd cousin Gabriel
19. Mini recipe books for Christmas Cookie Exchange party (need to get this done now that it's been six months!)
20. Reclaimed Window Frame (just need to choose pictures)
21. 365 project every month (painfully behind now on this by almost 3 months...)



18/30  More than halfway now.  Brian and I are back on the movie watching train.  Heck, we've even been to the theater twice so far this year!



16/30  Only one in the last three months that I can remember.  Cooked a few times.  Not as often as Brian would like though!  Definitely need to work on this a little more....  Have a few more recipes to share too.



Technically speaking, completed the 5k.  Gotta get to work on training for another before the year is up.  Aiming for breaking that 30 minute mark.... this time I will conquer it!! :)

Are any of you keeping track of goals for the year?  How are you doing as we hit the halfway mark for the year?

Recipe #12: Baked Cheesesteak Spring Rolls

Still working on doing 30 new recipes this year..... 12 down, 18 to go!  These were inspired by something we ate my last night in Pennsylvania at the American Bar & Grill in Lancaster.  We ate nothing but appetizers and wings for dinner... yum!  (I did end up paying for my fall off the food wagon though... I hate to say it but it was totally worth it!)

One of the appetizers we ordered was Cheesesteak Spring Rolls and I could have eaten nothing but that the whole night. YUM.  So of course, I wanted to recreate them in a slightly healthier version for Brian.  This was the tasty result!

Cheesesteak Spring Rolls recipe is here.  I changed it up by slow cooking the beef in the crockpot all afternoon, then baking the springrolls instead of frying them.  I actually bake eggrolls and chimichangas all the time.  To bake, I preheated the oven to 350, spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.  I put all the springrolls on the pan and sprayed them lightly with cooking spray.  Bake about 12-15 minutes or until browned.  We dipped them in ketchup (didn't want the hassle of making a separate sauce, though this one sounds tasty).  YUM!  Give them a try, I bet you'll like them too!

Our Home... Repainted and Ready for Summer!

The big project of repainting the house!  Brian did all the hard work and painted the majority of the house while I was gone... in just three days!  He totally rocked it.  All I had to do when I got home was paint one piece of trim above the garage door blue and the back door of the garage.  What a big impact it made.  So I won't keep you in suspense... here's the before:

All the before discussion is here if you missed it!

And the after...

All bright and happy for the summer now! And from a different angle:

So glad it is done!  Up next?  The front porch....

I'm either going to paint or stain the porch floor the same color as the garage door.  Add some furniture, maybe a hanging plant?  It will be a few months until I get the money and time, but for now, I'm happy with the house being done!  What do you think of our new happy yellow house?

Just Workin....

Hard at work leaves little time to play.  I feel like I'm constantly having to choose what to neglect.... my craft room, my house, my husband, my family, my friends.  There's always just so many things going on and I have no time to choose right now!  So I'm just going with it.  I'll be back around here soon to blog about my fun trip to the east coast, our newly painted house and all the little things in-between.  In the meantime, here are a few random thoughts....

Can't believe he's two!! And that he's going to be a big brother this year!! :)

Details are over on Flamingo Scraps.

While I was here....

....visiting my brother, sister-in-law and these three cute furballs....

Otis (bottom left), Belle (top) and Pepper (bottom right).

....I kept getting sneak peeks at the house like this from my husband....

....who did an amazing job painting our house over Memorial Day Weekend all by himself!  Apparently, the ladybugs ♥ it as much as I do!! (Just waiting for the right time of day and a clear street in front of my house to get the "after" photo!!)

And until I get a chance to update here.... check this blog out!  There are some fabulous crafty projects on there!!