All About My Sweet P

As my due date approaches, less than 11 weeks to go, I'm trying to take in every moment with my little Sweet P that I can.

We shop, picnic, meet daddy to feed the ducks and just enjoy our time together.





She's a lot like her momma, in many ways.

She has been inherited my inability to sit still when music comes on, love of laughter and a serious love for donuts.



She's also a lot like her daddy.

She thrives in the cold, she has the most gorgeous eyes and isn't afraid to get a little dirty.



She loves to be outside and she recently got to walk our little dog for the first time. The kid oozes joy!




She oozes joy a lot and is getting big so fast. We tried piggie-tails for the first time, she insists on doing most things by herself, she can rock massive headbands, neon and sunglasses - at the same time, she loves to color and she's getting more and more independent every day.

All of a sudden, my little sweet P turned into a full-out child.



She's a riot to be around and although I will miss our time together just the 3 of us, I'm pretty excited to watch her continue to grow and become an awesome big sister.

We love you little Sweet P.

crazy joy, instagram and Love146

How's that for a title!? I decided the topics all kind of relate so I'll just pull it all together in one post and get on with it.

First things first: the crazyjoy challenge. You may (or may not) have noticed the lack of posts regarding the crazyjoy challenge. Over Christmas break and then New Year's, Anna and I decided to take a little break from it. She was good and let her readers know about the break where I just didn't even mention it! Anyway, we both enjoyed the weekly challenge but also enjoyed the time off so with a lot of thought, we have decided to end the challenge.

I struggled with ending it because we committed ourselves to doing it for 52 weeks and had only made it about 30 so that would mean we failed. But to be honest, that's not a very good reason to keep doing something. Sure, it's not great to be a quitter but if you have the right reasons, I think it's just fine. I want to be more intentional about my time this year, including my blog and the challenge was just not a high priority. I don't feel bad about giving up on it but I have also replaced it with a new challenge.

Which brings me to the second topic: instagram. I love having a phone on my camera. I usually have my camera on me at all times and take random pictures of just about anything. I found instagram quite a while ago and love it. Although I have tried doing project365 twice before and failed, I'm giving it another attempt this year.

I think this time around will be more successful because I'm only using instagram photos for the challenge. That means I don't have to worry about uploading them to my computer, editing, or anything else. All I have to do is snap a picture with my phone each day (no problem there) and add it to instagram. I'm 8 days in and doing good.




Oh, and if you're on instagram, let me know, you can find me by searching recipeforcrazy.

Sorry, this post is super long, but I'm almost done.

If you haven't read any of this post yet, start now!

So, back to being intentional.

One of the more personal posts I've shared was this one on Love146. Just to remind you, Love146 is an organization with this mission:

"Abolition and Restoration! We combat child sex slavery & exploitation with the unexpected and restore survivors with excellence."

So, in an effort to raise awareness, did you know that the month of January is Human Trafficking Awareness month and January 11 is Human Trafficking Awareness Day?

You can click here to view a PDF with quick facts on child trafficking.

Want to learn more? Here are some great links:
HumanTrafficking.org
Love146
Love146 blog
Not For Sale
Oklahomans Against Trafficking of Humans
Stop Child Trafficking Now

Those are just a few but I hope you take some time this week to learn more about this issue.

Alright. That's all for today! Thanks for taking the time to read this today.

Oh, also, thank you for all the comments regarding the Star Wars poster! You guys made my day!

Ok, have a great week!

Copy Case

I am not ashamed to admit that I totally stole an idea from my sister. I mean, really, who hasn't that girl is full of them.

Here's the thing...

I had a phone.
I dropped it.

A lot.

One day the case broke.

I dropped it.
The screen spider-webbed. Thankfully my screen protector kept the screen from falling out so it still worked.

Time went on.

I dropped it again. Screen broke more and lock button wouldn't work.

Sweet P got her little hands on my phone and put it in the sink as I was washing my hands. Phone stopped working for a day then came back to life.

Only, partially alive. Sound button stopped working and phone reception very poor.

Then the final straw hit - the home button stopped working. You can't do much with an iPhone if the home button is broke.

So...



And I needed to protect my little friend. So I used my sister's recent post about customizing her case for inspiration. Only, I didn't use vintage scraps and things, I used my Anthropologie recipe card bookmarks! They are the cutest by the way. I cut, pasted and laid out a design I liked, with the help from my girl.



Uploaded to getuncommon and...



So there you have it. My very own customized, kitchen-y inspired iphone case with an actual, working phone in it!

Thanks for the inspiration, Ash.

The Stache Party

So last week was my dad's birthday and my sister and I worked up a little party to celebrate his many years of life!

I originally saw this photo collage on pinterest and wanted to do it for dad. I didn't even know it came from MS at the time! Have I mentioned how much I love her?

Anyway, my mom pulled some photos together for me and I took pictures of each one with my phone, converted them all to black and white and added a border, then printed them for the backdrop at our swanky venue.

Looking back on dad's pictures, one thing that popped out was his mustache. He's had one my entire life so I thought I would be fun to incorporate the stache into the party decor. Thus, the theme was born.



My sister and I made treats for the party. Lots of mini cupcakes came out of my oven and a few didn't make it to the party - a girl has to taste-test. I used Bakerella's cookies and cream icing recipe (with butter, not shortening) and added some crushed Oreo's to a little of the chocolate batter (in a box) as well as the vanilla batter (also from a box). Folks, I may never make  a standard cupcake again. Those things were delicious. The cookies even kept their crunch.



Anyway, my sister made a variety of fancy treats like peanut butter bites, rolo pretzels and sugar cookies. They were all so tasty. She also cut out mini mustaches and the number 60 so we could top the treats. I think the party table came out pretty cute if I do say so myself!



My sister probably got tons of cute party pics so while she was doing her thing, I chased her kids around trying to get them to pose with mustaches with me for a little photo booth fun.

Side note - do you have the pocketbooth app?

photo from itunes

No!? Go get it now. If you do, you know how much fun that thing is, especially at parties AND parties that have mustaches on sticks!

Anyway, here are just a few of the photo booth pics - there's a whole lot more.



Oh, and the swanky setting? We had it at none other than Jim's Coney Island. I've mentioned it on this blog before and some know it by "Never on Sunday's" but I basically grew up there. I've even ran into my Dad at Jim's a time or two. It was the perfect setting: laid back, the smell of chili dogs and Greek food and just classy enough to not get stares from the other patrons as we ran around covered in fake mustaches!

I hope dad had as much fun at the party than we did planning it!

Oh How We Love Fall

Happy Thursday!

CrazyJoy =

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Sorry this is late. I've been in and out, enjoying a few Black Friday traditions, eating, decorating and even grabbed a quick nap. It's been a great couple of days!

Anna posted the new crazyjoy challenge word earlier today so I hoped you checked it out. If not, here you go.



I'll see you Monday where I'll post my photo for the challenge.

Until then, here are some new photos over the last few days...






The collages were made with the diptic app using instagram photos from my phone library. I guess I should mention that I'm a little obsessed with Instagram (free) and Diptic (only 99 cents).

Photo Dump

My iphone told me I was running out of space because I had so many pictures on it. I copied them all over to the computer and laughed at some of the ones I had on there.

I call this one Dinner Bracket. When you can't decide what to eat, make a bracket and flip a coin for the winner. The winner of each bracket advances to until you have a dinner winner.

Random fortune from a cookie.

And in case you thought me misplacing things was a one-time thing. Here's a picture I took at the mall after I had been shopping for 30 minutes and realized I didn't have my wallet. It was still on the counter where I left it. Thankfully no one took it!

And a whole lot of P.


Sleeping babe.

Attacking the cat.

And in her shades.

Random? Yes. Happy Wednesday anyway!

For the Love of February

William Shakespeare combines music, food and love in one sentence. I like it so I made it into a little graphic to use the month of February for my iPhone wallpaper.

Like it? Right click to download.

And here's my new February desktop. Same quote in orange! (go pokes)



Hope your February is full of love, music and food!

And full of warmth if you got hit by the crazy blizzard like we did here.

Reeder App for iPhone

I don't know how I didn't know about this little gem before.

If you read a lot of blogs and have an iPhone you must get Reeder. It syncs with your Google account so you can spend more time reading your favorite blogs when you're away from the computer. Here's a screen shot.

Now when I'm in line at the bank or in the doctor's office, I can spend more time catching up and less time playing Angry Birds.

5 More Reasons I Love My iPhone

If I had to give up tv or my iphone, I'm pretty sure I would choose the tv.

Things you can't do with a tv that you can with an iphone:

1. Take pictures
2. Find a nearby restaurant (and read reviews) - thank you Urbanspoon
3. Find yourself when you are lost - thank you maps
4. Play games - hello Angry Birds
5. Text, call and email 

So, here are some recent photos I took with my phone that crack me up!

Giving the thumbs up on this outfit!

Happy Wednesday!!

Thank you Rachel for the Tulsa onesie!

Reasons #44, #98 and #652 of Why I Like My iPhone

This was scheduled to post yesterday but I was at work all day so I never checked it. I already messed up the posting every day this month and it was only day 4!!! Ha! Oh well, better luck next time!!


#44 : Being able to take a picture of this cutie in the morning!

#98 : Being able to take a picture of this cutie on our way to get donuts!

#652 : Ability to take pictures of random things I find while out and about...

This quote came to mind the other day while I was changing an especially explosive diaper. It made me laugh.

What's your favorite piece of technology?