Happy Birthday!

This post is a few days late; Last weekend we celebrated Adam's Birthday by taking a tour of Taliesin West (Frank Lloyd Wright's Winter home). It was fabulous!

We were amazed at all the structures he built and to learn about Frank Lloyd Wright and how eccentric he was. I highly recommend the tour, though it is a little pricey; luckily we had passes so it was especially nice that it was free for us!


Saturday evening we had a little pool party with some friends and enjoyed some cake and ice cream. I've discovered that I really am horrible at taking pictures as I didn't get any of our weekend, except for the cake I made! (I guess still objects are easier!)

Wheat!

We recently bought one of these:

Love it! We love adding whole wheat to our foods (I even snuck it in brownies and you couldn't tell!). My favorite thing so far were some delicious chocolate chip zucchini muffins that I substituted wheat flour for white, they were so good I had to text Adam that he should come home from work and eat some; yeah he did, SIX of them!

Here's the recipe

(Original Link here to Allrecipes where I got it)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used all whole wheat)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup shredded zucchini (I also shredded one apple and added it, it made them super moist!)
• 1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts ( I didn't have any nuts so I left them out)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Combine the egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips and walnuts. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done.

I don't have any pictures; but trust me they were TASTY!

I do have some pictures of my first attempt at bread though!

Cake skills...

I have wanted to take a cake class for a long time and finally did it! Here are some of my creations:

A very special RAINBOW Cake...

yeah, I wasn't thrilled about having to make a rainbow cake, but it was either that or a shaped cake and I didn't want to buy a shaped pan without a reason to use it and Rainbow Brite hadn't showed up yet.. But as soon as she did I had to test her out!

Lesson learned.... When you use buttercream icing and add color to it, it deapens as it sits; in other words just because you think Rainbow's skin color frosting looks pink, don't add brown because it will turn REALLY BROWN after its sits! Yeah, I know she looks like a devil Rainbow Brite, but luckily this was a practice cake and not for some poor girls birthday party!

And the finally of Wilton Course One:

I just started the Fondant course and I LOVE it! So excited to learn how to fondant. This week I got to cover my very first fondant cake!

mmmmmm.......

Today...

Today I ran a mile..... Why I finally decided I was ready to start running again in the middle of July when its 110 degrees is beyond me. I finally decided I have fought it long enough; time to give up my pride; time to forget about how many miles a week I was running two years ago (yeah somewhere between 30-40, but I am trying to forget!); time to get over the heat excuse. So I made up my mind, made a commitment, and this morning when my Alarm went off at 5:30 I resisted all my desires to turn it off and go back to sleep (for those of you not in Arizona and worried about me running at 5:30, trust me, its PLENTY, light by then!).

I know I have a long road ahead, but I am putting this in writing right now that the runner in me is back! I am already looking forward to a few races (I use the term races loosely, maybe a better description would be organized jogs!) and am even considering a Triathlon- anyone have a Road Bike I could borrow?

So if you are in the AZ (or plan to travel here in the next few months) lets run some "organized jogs" and get a t-shirt in the process (I mean really, who wants to run a race if there isn't a free t-shirt at the end?) I may run a few steps behind (did I mention I am really slow?), but I will surely meet you at the finish line!

A little of this and a little of that!

I've been in a crafty mood the last little bit, so here are some of my recent projects!

For Easter, I made my niece and nephew some fun accessories!

Handmade Tie for Brycen and Flower Clips for Sadie!

(Tie pattern found here)

New Table Runner

(Table runner pattern here)

I opted for these cute suckers instead of flowers... they were way cheap and last longer (as long as I can keep Adam from licking them!) Plus I thought they were very spring!

Nursing Cover and Burp Cloths for a Coworker

You can find patterns for both of these projects all over the Internet, I used some as a guide and then added some extra flair!