I did it!

I finally updated my etsy shop. I figured it was about time. It is just a small update. I've added paper and ephemera packs (pictured above), more vintage books and a few other items. It took all morning and afternoon....oy. This has to be quick...wee one's bus will be here soon. Have a great weekend!

The Rest of Summer Vacation

I guess since as of this morning Summer Vacation is entirely over (high school started on Monday and wee one went back today) I had better finish up all the stuff from summer break. I managed to read 11 books and go see 4 movies (Cars II and Winnie the Pooh rounded out the month of July). I, also, got adventurous in the kitchen. The picture above is ratatouile. High Schooler decided one day that we should make some (he tried a grilled version at the Hard Rock Cafe in Phoenix at the beginning of summer and wanted to make the old school version)...turned out I made it...that is a lot of slicing and dicing. It made a huge ass pot. Here is the link to that recipe: www.easy-french-food.com/ratatouille-recipe.html . It went over well. About a week before that we made this www.foodsessed.com/2010/04/20/baby-octopus-with-garlic-and-parsley . Since the ratatouille I've done this www.whatscookingamerica.net/Seafood/OystersPanFried.htm and made these www.bonappetit.com/recipes/quick-recipes/2010/05/smoked_salmon_with_black_pepper_potato_chips_and_lemon_creme_fraiche Oy...that has to be this longest link ever. :) Big disclaimer here....I love food....I just don't each much of it. Everything made above was for hubby and high schooler. I got some thrifting in this summer....hopefully, I'll get pictures taken and things listed in my neglected tiny Etsy shop in the next few weeks. I'm going to go enjoy the silence some more before they return from school. :)

Mini-Vacation, Part 2

Saturday morning we headed to the Reid Park Zoo (www.tucsonzoo.org). Wee one has actually been there...that is where they had a field trip in the Spring. It is rather nice..not too big, not too small. I did take pictures of the giraffes, but about a week after we visited one of the giraffes died. :( It was starting to warm up, so we went back to the hotel for a dip (okay, I didn't..they did). Hubby and Jr went here www.funtasticks.com for some father/son bonding time. For dinner, we ran across the road to here www.monkeyburgerrestaurant.com. The burgers were excellent, they make homemade chips to go with them and they have beer on tap (not that I drink beer). We hit a few shops the next day on the way home (Trader Joe's, Super Target, a new B&N for us). It was a nice, little last minute trip.

Our Mini-Vacation, Part 1

Hubby got his leave approved at the last minute, so choices of where we could go were limited. We decided on Tucson..close enough that the drive didn't suck, but far enough to get away from work. :) We drove in on Thursday (stopping at a few thrift stores to appease me and a Toys'R'Us to appease them) and stayed at the Embassy Suites- Williams Center. They are quite affordable in AZ during the summer. :) We walked over to Target and got Pizza Hut that night for dinner...real exciting, I know. Friday was a busy day. We started here
http://www.tucsonbotanical.org/, then hit this http://www.theminitimemachine.org/ (which has a great deal going on until Labor Day...active duty military and their families get in for free), then we hit a mall and saw "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II", and ended with a trip to Olive Garden for dinner. The photos are from the Tucson Botanical garden....I took over 60..hard to pick which ones to post. There is no photography allowed at the Mini Time Machine Museum...it was cute though. You go through and can pick up storybook sheets to build a kind of choose your own adeventure book. They give you a cover and some brads at the end to put it all together. Part 2 will cover Saturday and Sunday of our mini vacation. :)