Baby Name Wizard

My sister is getting ready to have another little boy in a few weeks, so I've had a lot of fun reviewing baby names.  I stumbled across this Baby Name Wizard website, which turns out is very addicting even if you are not expecting.  You can type in a name and see the statistics by year of the popularity of your name.  It also has a name mapper that breaks down name popularity by region.  There are all sorts of fun possibilities here for your name and the name of 50 of your closest friends.  

My first nephew, Ethan, 5 hours old

Good Morning: Endless Summer

rougerouge

Learning to Cook: Chronicles of a Kitchen Klutz

So I know I am not as much of a klutz in the kitchen when it comes to baking, but I couldn't resist sharing a new trick I learned.  

I love making my favorite homemade Coconut Chocolate Chip cookies.  I usually refrigerate half my dough and bake half my dough.  Being a single girl, I can't be eating whole batches of cookies.  And it works out because I usually then have dough on hand to make homemade cookies when friends come over.  The one problem is that it refrigerates into one big mass of cookie dough that is difficult to spoon or shape.  

I found this trick in a cooking magazine over the weekend (sorry I don't remember which one).  

After making the dough you shape it into balls on a cookie sheet.  Just like you were getting ready to put them in the oven.

You then place them in the freezer for an hour.  (Please ignore the mess that is my freezer)

After an hour they are then perfectly shaped balls that you can put together in a ziplock bag and place back in the freezer.

Then you can pull out even just a couple when you want to make cookies.  It is just like having those store bought already shaped cookies in your fridge, but better because they are homemade!  So easy! 

My Weekend in Photos

Happy Monday!  Hope everyone had a good weekend and took advantage of some of the warm weather!

I went to my favorite salad place, Chop't.  I love their light fixture which is the shape of the tool they use to perfectly chop up all their salads.  So delicious.

Spent some time at my friends place where their photographic cat always keeps watch at the window.

Went to Baltimore where we watched the UMD game and went to an IMAX movie.

Took a trip to Petsmart where I bought Max a new toy.  Hopefully this will keep him from chewing up any more of my shoes.

I was finally able to open the windows, air out the place and do some spring cleaning.

Baked super delicious coconut chocolate chip cookies.

Went to Lincoln Park with Turner and Max where we laid out on a blanket and read.

I finished off my weekend by eating dinner on the steps of the Portrait Gallery with my friend.  I'm hoping this beautiful weather is here to stay so I can continue having amazing weekends like this one.

Good Morning: Reflecting Art

Thomas Hawk

Stranger Candids: Part 4

I know I usually don't post on the weekends, but I had to make an exception for the final pictures of my Stranger Candids project.  This is the last round of photographs people took using the disposable camera I tied to a park bench, but feel free to check out all of the pictures on my flickr page.  And stay tuned because I hope to try this project again soon!

Happy Weekend!

Word Book

I am in love with this book that Party Perfect made for her son to learn his words.  It would be the perfect gift for my nephew, Ethan, and my second nephew on the way (in a few weeks!).  I was thinking it could also be a cool idea to do a book of all their extended family members.  That way even though we all live across the U.S., we can still be familiar.

Desktop Calendar

These hand drawn desktop calendars were the perfect thing that I needed to refresh my screen  background. With the weather changing for the better, I was ready to get away from the snow scene I've had up for months now.  You can download your own for free from illustrator Natalie Perkins on her website.

Stranger Candids: Part 3

(So I just found out this morning that this is a picture of my boyfriend, Turner.  I had no idea he went and found where I put out my disposable camera.  When he mentioned the photograph of the open mouth without seeing my pictures I was on to him.  Very Sneaky!)

Last set to come tomorrow!

Good Morning: Lonely Princess

Pensiero