What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I saw WILW on learning to love and am excited to play along!

Here's what I'm loving today!

I'm loving the sunshine! We've had a weird winter where it snows, then it melts, snow then it melts and it seems to be a never ending cycle. The trees are starting to bud, so I'm hoping the warm spring weather is just around the corner so I can start jogging again!

I'm loving this song I heard at Forever 21 this past weekend. It's got the big band jazzy feel, but also the techno that makes you want to boogie!



I'm loving my bubble gum *scented* nail polish I picked up while I was at Forever 21.

I'm loving the book series Sister-to-Sister. The first book, Stuck in the Middle was a free Kindle book, and after reading it, I downloaded books 2 and 3.

I'm loving the Spring '11 catalog from Ruche.

What are you loving today? Head on over to this kind of love and link up!



P-dub's Sweet Cinnamon Scones

I made these scones for the morning after Em's bachelorette party. Cinnamon chips were incredibly difficult for me to find, I was only able to track a bag down after calling several grocery stores and one of them happened to have only one bag not even out in aisle, but in their back inventory.

The scones were delicious, however when I was making them, 3/4c of heavy cream was not nearly enough for me to make the dough stick together to form and cut them. I realized this after I put the crumb topping on and the dough was so dry I couldn't even cut the invidual scones out, so I put it all back in my mixing bowl, eyeballed more cream into the mix until it had the correct consistency. I ended up without the crumbly mixture on top, but I think it was a sweet surprise as you bit into each scone and got pockets of cinnamon sugar mix :)

And just for fun, a few photos from the night, it was an 80s themed party. I can't believe I'm putting this out on the interwebs!

Sweet Cinnamon Scones

by Pioneer Woman

• 3 cups All-purpose Flour
• ⅓ cups Sugar
• 5 teaspoons Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
• 2 sticks (1 Cup) Unsalted Butter
• ¾ cups Heavy Cream
• 1 whole Egg
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 cup Cinnamon Chips
• Topping
• ½ cups Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1-½ teaspoon Heavy Cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and baking powder. Cut butter into pieces, then cut into dry ingredients with a pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in cinnamon chips.
Mix together cream, egg, and vanilla extract. Pour into flour/butter mixture, stirring gently with a fork to combine.

Turn onto work surface (mixture will be very crumbly and falling apart.) Gently press together on the sides as you flatten (or roll, with a rolling pin) the top. Form either into a large circle or a large rectangle. Mix together topping ingredients, stirring with a fork. Sprinkle over the top of the dough, lightly pressing.

Cut into wedges (from a circle) or triangles (from a rectangle.) Transfer to a cookie sheet and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Serve with coffee.

My Happy List

I am sooooo happy for my newlywed friends Emily and Patrick! Emily and I have known each other since kindergarden; she was a bridesmaid on my special day and I was completely honored to be a part of hers. She looked BEAUTIFUL and the wedding went off without a hitch! Congrats Emily and Pat and many wishes on a blessed marriage!!

photos by madeline james photography

Happy List 3-7-11

The top thing on my happy list is that this past weekend, I finished a life-long goal of reading the Bible! So with this, I thought I'd give a quick update on my progress with my 30 Before 30 list!

1. Read the Bible

2. Purchase and learn how to use a a Canon Rebel or similar camera

3. Watch my sister play piano live in a concert at the college level

4. Run a half marathon

5. Make a fancy quilt

6. Ride a motorcycle

7. Visit Victoria B.C.

8. Play a round of golf with my husband - well on my way with this one. Hubster bought me a set of women's clubs!
9. Start and finish our downstairs decorating - We purchased furniture this weekend (it looks brown in the picture, but it's more of a charcoal color) and started painting last night!



source

10. Put together our wedding photo album

11. Successfully make something with rhubarb

12. Stop drinking pop  - I haven't had a soda since October

13. Get a massage

14. Go camping

15. Do 20 real push ups

16. Attend a cooking class

17. Ride a bicycle

18. Have a baby

19. Teach my husband to speak Spanish

20. Learn to make my Grandma's Queso Fresco

21. Go to a hockey game

22. Pay off my credit card

23. Watch all the Harry Potter films - I bought DVDs 1-6 and just need to sit down and watch them!

24. Eat fried green tomatoes - I watched the movie recently, does that count?

25. Learn to knit - Hubby's aunt taught me this one over New Years weekend. I've been working on granny square's!
26. Not eat out for an entire month - We are thinking April is going to be the month.

27. Throw a baby shower for one of my girlfriends

28. Have a tea party

29. Get promoted to Construction Manager - I was recently promoted to project manager, just one step away from becoming a CM!

30. Buy a lotto ticket - I tried to buy one the last week, but I didn't know what to ask for! Finally on Saturday, I bought some at a vending machine. And it was no easy task since after I put my money in the machine, I realized the machine did not return change and I did NOT want to buy $20 worth of lotto tickets! Half an hour later, I finally got 2 scratch tickets, mega million ticket and my change back!