An Update and a Recipe

Well, we did it.
Somehow we managed to roast the pumpkin seeds...

 and carve the pumpkins just in time before Halloween.

But barely.
That's my hot tea on the table there.
After I got home from work Saturday I felt a hundred times worse than I had the day before.
I went to bed at 5pm.  
Then I felt horribly guilty that Mr. Hass was downstairs carving the pumpkins with the girls without me,
and I felt awful that I wasn't going to have one single picture of my girls and their Daddy and their pumpkins this year,
so I made my way out of bed,
made some hot tea,
took that picture,
took more medicine...

 and went back to bed.

Thank goodness Mr. Hass was home on Sunday because I slept the majority of the day.
I woke up Sunday morning, had two cups of coffee and went back to bed for 6 hours.
I must have needed it.

I am glad I made myself rest because I did feel better later that day,
and also because I was up several times throughout the night rocking a sick and fevered Claire.
Poor girl.
This nasty chest cold is taking us all down one by one.
So far Mr. Hass has escaped unharmed. 
He says he was sick the entire time he was in college and he thinks he has caught every bug that exists. 
We will see.


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Remember a few posts back when several of you asked for the recipe to my Nana's chicken?

Well, I made it again last week and took pictures for  ya.
It's super easy and super tasty.
You will need:

 8chicken thighs
1 onion chopped
3-4 celery ribs chopped
4 T. butter
2 or 3 T. capers
1 cup (or  can) chicken stock/broth

 Heat your pans.
The yellow pot is what I cook the chicken in
and the other pan is to saute your celery and onion.

 The thighs have a lot of flavor in them so that is why you want thighs for this meal.
I cut the skin off and then season the tops with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

 Put 2 T. of butter in your saute pan and get hot...

 and the other 2 T. of butter in your other pot.

 Drop your thighs in once the butter is bubbling and hot,
and then season the other side with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

 While chicken is browning, toss your celery and onion into pan and saute.  I like to even dice up the leafy part of the celery and add that in there. (because my mama does, and she told me it adds more flavor, so just do it okay?) ;)

The celery and onion make your kitchen smell soooooo good.

After a minute or two, flip the chicken to brown the other side.

 Once celery and onion are translucent, add to pot.
Use your spatula to scrape all the butter and good stuff outta there.

 Then add about a cup (or more- I eyeball it) of chicken broth.

 Then add a couple of tablespoons of capers.
Do NOT be afraid of capers.
They add so much flavor to this dish.
Then put the lid on and simmer for about 90 minutes.

 I usually serve this with a couple of different sides.  You can make rice, or butternut squash, or anything you like!
This time I was a bit tired and lazy so i just quickly cooked some asparagus and topped with feta and coupla pats of butta (why not),
and I also made tots.

Cause who doesn't love tots???

Be sure to serve yourself a bunch of those diced celery and onions on top of your chicken when you eat!

Hope you enjoy my Nana's chicken!!
Let me know if you try it. 

Life in Pictures. And a few words.

Hannah missed two days of school this week because she has had a cold.
Now I have her cold.  I'm hoping today was the worst of it.
This week hasn't gone so smoothly with the potty training.
Well, actually, Claire's actually doing really well with the "potty" training.
She's been waking up dry in the mornings and after naps.
This morning she woke up crying at 5:45am because she said her "potty hurt me".
Her bladder was so full and the stubborn girl refused to go to the bathroom.
So of course we wound up having  to strip the sheets off of her bed an hour later (for the 4th time this week.) 
This week there have been several non potty accidents. 
Fun stuff.  Family room floor.  Bathtub.  Seriously?  Yes, seriously.

 And to continue with my honesty here, I thought we were going to have the same kind of issue right here on the stage at Barnes N Noble, but thank goodness we did not.

 I admit I will be a little sad once mission potty train is complete.  (a little, i said a little)
There will be no more baby left in this Hass House.

 Claire has been very into cowering (coloring) lately. 
I've been pretty impressed with her ability to stay within the lines.

 This next scene takes place in front of the front door every time Mr. H leaves for work.  Hannah tries to barricade the exit, there are cries all the way around begging Daddy not to go...

 And what happens when I go to work you ask?
If I'm lucky they briefly look up from whatever it is they are doing and gladly wave and shout "BYE Mom!" 
Mr. H always tells me they'd chase after you too if you worked as many hours as I do. 
He's probably right.
But still.

 We went to the park on Tuesday afternoon after the rain dispersed.
Everytime we go I am amazed at how much these girls can do on their own now. 

 Claire doesn't even need my help to climb up onto the "big kid" play equipment.  (sad face)

 I made Mel's mac n cheese. 

 PJ's were on sale at Target so I let Hannah pick which ones she wanted.  She said, "The pink ones Mom, because look they have marshmallows and a cup of coffee on them!"  
I laughed and told her that I thought it was hot chocolate.

Naturally when they wore the hot chocolate jammies, they had to drink some hot chocolate with marshmallows.


That's all for now.
I'm off to shower.
Then to finish watching Bridesmaids.
We're about an hour in and so far I have not laughed hysterically like I thought I would.
I've laughed, don't get me wrong.
Just not hysterically.

Peace out friends.

what i wore wednesday

I'm on a roll lately.
I am linking up again with Lindsey at The Pleated Poppy for what i wore wednesday.
I get such great ideas and fashion inspiration from this fun link up!


I've noticed lately that I have quite a few tops in my closet but that I need more "bottom" options.  I have lots of jeans, some leggings, but other than that I don't mix up the "bottoms" too much.  So lately when out and about I have kept that in mind and a couple weeks ago I found something new and fun to try.  I wore this to work one day.

 top- Forever21

skirt- Forever21

sand colored tank- BP Nordstrom

boots- Candie's Kohl's

long necklace- Forever21

 This outfit was really comfortable and the best part about it...

pockets! I love pockets!

These pictures were taken before our movie date on Sunday night and it was already dark so sorry for the crappy quality.

 Wanted to be cute but still comfy,

top- Forever21

jeans- Mek Nordstrom

flips- havianas

leopard scarf- BP Nordstrom

 flower in the hair- Forever21

earrings- BP Nordstrom

rainy day Tuesday, big outing was the grocery store.

striped sweatshirt top- Forever21 (super soft and comfy)

white long and lean tank- Target- have them in every color-love.

yoga pants- live in these things when i don't work-Victoria's Secret

shoes- pumas Nordie's

Sorry I didn't have a full week's worth of style for ya.

This week was my long stretch of days off so I was pretty casual.

I tried to exercise a few times, and usually don't wind up getting to shower until later in the evenings on those days, so I rolled around like this...

my sister thought this yoga tank was a lululemon.

i wish.

it's not.

kohl's baby.  $9 clearance.

shorts- old navy

Does anyone else have the Nordstrom Sale mailer on their fridge?

because I do.

The sale starts next Wednesday.

I always work on Wednesdays.

But it just so happens that I have a gap in my day from 12-3!

Coincidence?

I'd like to call it fate my friends.

Mr. Hass would like to curse out loud and call it something else.

I say it's fate.

My girls need shoes and their birthdays are coming up.

I am thinking about these for them...

 cute huh?

sparkles.  pink.  what's not to love for a little girl?

Hannah needs a new pair of rain boots and I'm thinking these are cute...

But you didn't think I'd go all the way to Nordstrom on my "lunch break" and not get myself anything did you???

I am needing a pair of cute and comfy sneaks and I am hoping and praying that the Tory Burch Murphey sneaker will be on sale...

Caaa-uuute right?

I don't own anything by TB, but I'm a big girl now because I made my first pot roast,

and I think I need these don't you? 

;)

I'm wondering where do you like to find your fashion inspiration from???

My favorite place to get ideas and learn about new products and styles is In Style magazine.

(and the VS Holiday catalogue is fun too)

Last night when Mr. Hass got home from work,

I was pouring over the pages of the latest In Style while watching The Rachel Zoe Project.

Talk about fashion overload.

He said, "So I get it.  I get why you like this show.  It's like watching an episode of US magazine come to life for a whole hour."

He gets me.

So where do you get your fashion inspiration from???

Our Weekend Haps.

Hiyeeee.
Before I fill you all in on my weekend haps, I just wanted to say thank you so much for all of the nice comments regarding my very first vlog.
I don't know why I was so nervous to do that.
But I'm glad you liked it, and maybe even learned a thing or two from it.
I will try to do one again soon.
Are there any requests for what I should do next time?  Do you want to see me style my hair down?  Or style half up? Or a video of me styling my girls hair?  You tell me.
It was also really fun to hear from some of you who I had no idea read my blog!! Thanks so much for letting me know and for the encouragement to continue vlogging.  ;) I just love my blog buds.

I did a bit more spray painting on Saturday.

A couple people asked me what kind of spray paint I use so here's a few pics of that.

 Krylon is usually about $3.47 a can at Wal-Mart which is a little pricier than some of the other spray paints, but I have really liked it so far and I don't like to mess with a good thing.  Plus I always say you get what you pay for.

We've had that little stand forever and it was looking a little sad.  So I sanded it down and decided to paint it ivory.  Mainly because I had two cans of ivory in my garage so ivory it was.

This is where that stand belongs for now.  This little nook is always getting re-decorated.  Before we had the playroom it used to house the girls play kitchen, and then when we moved them into the same room, the kitchen went into the playroom and we figured this was a sort of good spot to put the rocking chair.  That chair is the comfiest place to sit.  (the ocd in me is wanting to go rearrange that lamp cord so that you can't see it and retake this picture) 

Welcome to our entryway.  A blank wall by the front door.  Inviting no?

Well, I'm workin' on it.

I have finally figured out what I want to do with this space so now it is just a matter of finding it.

I would like to find a steal of a deal for a hutch (dual purpose so that I can store my china and fine silver and fancy things in it) and maybe a pretty lamp on top of it, and maybe a pretty chair next to the hutch.

For now, it is where we keep our basket (which I recently spray painted dark brown) full of slippers.  Which is kinda convenient I must say.

This weekend I created a little wall collage to go above my future hutch.  But of course I did not hang anything without consulting with my personal decorating assistant first (my mom-thanks mom!)

And one more view of the wall.  I took this while standing inside the half bath on the opposite wall.

What do you think?

I like it.

The pictures make me happy.

Now I need your help with something bloggy buds...

See this piece of furniture here?

 It was Claire's.  It matched her crib and changing table which are now gone.

I almost got rid of this piece, but when we converted the room to a playroom,

I sort of discovered what a useful piece of furniture this could be for storing things. 

 It holds a lot of stuff and makes for easy clean up to just throw things back in the drawers.

My problem is, I hate the look of it.

I hate the wood color.

I thought about sanding it and painting it but that seems like a really big job.

Right now I am kinda thinking about putting up a fun leopard print paper on the inside back part on the top half with mod podge or something like that and getting some fun knobs for the drawers.

What would you do to jazz that baby up a bit????

 I hung these two bulletin boards in the playroom to display the girls artwork and schoolwork. 

And just so you know, the playroom is not always picked up. ;)

I hung this bulletin board over the weekend too.  It's right by the garage door and I am going to start keeping my current favorite happy pictures on there.  Makes me smile every time I see it.

 This is my new jewelry organizer that came this weekend!

I was SO excited to get this.

My friend Jenny had ordered a couple and shared about it on her blog.  When I saw it I knew it was the exact thing that I needed to organize my jewelry.

It is from Spirit Ranch Creations Etsy shop.

 As soon as Mr. Hass hung it up for me I got right to organizing my jewelry boxes and putting my favorites out on display.

I was especially excited that this had a spot for bracelets because I have just had my bangles sitting out on my dresser and they've been driving me crazy. They needed a home.

Ahhhh.  Isn't it pretty?  I think it looks like my own little jewelry store.  :)

A productive weekend wouldn't you say?
And last night Mr. Hass and I were even able to get out of the house alone for a movie date.  I thought Moneyball was at 8:20 but turns out I goofed on the movie times.  Woops.  So we wound up seeing Midnight In Paris and had time to get a latte from Starbucks first!  We sat in the car overlooking the lake at dos lagos and chit chatted 20 minutes away while we sipped our drinks.  The movie wound up working out well.  Neither of us knew a thing about it, and we both really really enjoyed it.  And now I am dying to go to Paris.

I'm linking up with carissa at lowercase letters today!