Celebrating

Today I am celebrating because I passed my glucose test and I don't have gestational diabetes! Which is a very good thing because it would be so hard for me to give up the wonderful carbs, sweets, sugar, fruit and all the foods that are excluded from a diabetes diet. So I decided to celebrate by making some cinnamon-swirl cupcakes, which taste a bit like snickerdoodles. I love all forms of cinnamon and sugar...cinnamon rolls, cinnamon-sugar doughnuts, cinnamon toast, the list goes on and on.

Being thankful and celebrating this good news made me think of all the other things, large and small, that make me happy and that I am thankful for today.

* That I'm almost 7 months pregnant with our first child, a baby girl!

* My wonderful, handsome husband.

* Absolutely amazing family & friends.

* A freshly mowed lawn, thanks to our new gardener (after waiting 8 years to hire someone!)

* Getting to celebrate one of my best friend's baby at a shower this weekend.

* My awesome dad is building a crib for the baby! And we get to use the bassinet that my father-in-law made over 34 years ago for my husband!

There are so many more things that I am thankful for today but these are at the top of my mind this morning.

What are you celebrating today?

Back to Basics

I'm so happy to say that I have been back on the baking bandwagon for the past month or so and it makes me feel like my old self! Last week I had a craving for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and those were delicious (no pictures, too busy enjoying them). This week I went crazy with homemade bread. Amazing english muffins, whole wheat bread and ciabatta sandwich loaves. All the recipes are from The Bread Baker's Apprentice and the bread I have baked from this book are just wonderful. Now the hard part is deciding what type of bread I want to eat!

Today's lunch: turkey, bacon, avocado and mache lettuce on a homemade ciabatta loaf, AMAZING!

*****

On another note, I was doing some shopping at TJ Maxx and I found these cute note cards and adorable little shoes for $5 and I just can't wait for my little one to wear them!

A New Hobby and Some Exciting News!

Hello Everyone! I apologize for my disappearance these past few months but I do have good reason. I'm so happy to share that I am 5 months pregnant! And these past few months I just haven't been motivated to bake, cook or blog so I took a brief break but now I'm doing better and can't wait to get started again!

I just recently bought a new book Simple Sewing for Babies by Lotta Jansdotter and after a few weeks of perusing the pages I finally got up the courage to tackle a project. It has been about 3 or 4 years since I last sewed so this first project took me a little longer than I anticipated but I absolutely adore the finished pieces and can't wait for my little one to wear them!

There is a discount fabric store near my house called M&L Fabrics and my mom and I took a trip there and I was overwhelmed by all the fabric choices! They have a large offering of Amy Butler, Robert Kaufman, Alexander Henry and so many more. I limited myself to about 5 different fabrics and then came home to see what I wanted to make first.

I decided on the simple dress with matching bloomers and though mine does look a bit different from the pictures in the book, I am so happy with how it turned out! Now that I know how easily these can come together I plan to make quite a few of them. So my little girl will be running around in lots of adorable dresses!

Front of dress with pocket and button

Close-up of pocket with button to match the back

Detail of fabric and back opening with button

Adorable bloomers

Well, I have to go and sew a few more things on this beautiful, rainy day in Southern California! Hope you are enjoying your Friday!

Vintage Goodies and Tasty Treats

Do you love amazing vintage finds? And delicious desserts? Then you must come to "The Attic" this Sunday, October 11th. My friend Rachel is having a sale of tons of vintage goodies and trust me, you will want to be there! And I will be providing some sugar to keep everyone happy while shopping. Email justaspoonful@gmail.com for more details!