The Birthday Girl

I can't believe it but my little baby Riley Belle is 6 human years old today! It seems like just the other day I bought her as a puppy with my traded in school book money. I don't know how I could have gotten thru the past few years without her. She's my buddy, and as much as her hair and constant need for being touched annoys me, I couldn't make it through daily life without her. Here are a few images of our adventures together over the last 6 years!

This was taken a few years ago with her former roomie Ruby, the bagel. I've always thought that Riley thinks Ruby was her own baby puppy...she'd let Ruby pull and tug at her ears all day without so much as a growl or snap. I think she misses the Roo.

Here she is mortified and overall unsure about her new life jacket. Girls ready to go out on the boat!

Here she is being a good girl and sitting in her new bed so mom can take a picture. It was the first and last time her tail touched that bed...oh well, more beds for baby brother Axel.

Here she is enjoying a weekend retreat at grandma and grandpa's...girlfriend loves her some snow!



Happy Birthday Ms. Belle (even though you are blissfully unaware of birthdays much less your own)!! Momma and Bubby love you!


Just a Blonde's Take

The Big Unveil

I have been dying to share this with you all (all 3 of you who read this poor excuse for a blog, but I won't go into my hangs ups I have about my lack of posting), but out of respect for my sister-in-law (and my brother) I have waited until I was certain she was OK with me sharing these...without further ado, I would like to present to you...Sawyer, my first, favorite, most adorable baby nephew!

*Taken by Christine Burke, post processing by yours truly

This is my absolute favorite picture so far of him and his mom. She is one brave and tough gal. Her husband, my little bro, is over in Afghanistan with his fellow Marines and has been there through most of their marriage and her pregnancy, which means he has yet to meet his first child. God willing, he will be back in the states in mid April and will finally get to meet his little Sawyer! I'm sure Jamie will of course let him catch up on all the diaper changing he's missed. It's truly amazing to me to see this remarkable young woman deal with such a tough situation, for all intensive purposes she's been a single mom these past months, and I couldn't be more proud or in awe of her. She's had a lot on her plate and I can't imagine myself enduring the things she has. She is a lady, and a wonderful mom. My brother couldn't have picked a more fabulous girl to be apart of our family. Although I'll take her knees out if she throws a Wii remote through my flat screen**haha just kidding Jamie**

I am a little sad today though...Jamie and Sawyer will be leaving soon to meet my little bro in California and won't be back until August! I am however excited that Tony will be back and will get to be with Jamie and the baby. It will be so nice to know he's back and out of harms way. This blonde girl sends all her love, respect, and thoughts to all those soldiers over seas and their families they must leave behind. It's truly one of the most selfless jobs. Hooorahhh!

As for Tony, he's a pretty awesome dude and I can't wait until we get to go climbing together again. Although, since he has military grade muscles he makes me look bad hanging from the grabs and shooting up the wall like a monkey...on second thought maybe I won't go with him right when he gets back. **Jamie, if you could please fatten my brother up and make him loose all his arm and legs muscles my climbing ego would really appreciate it!**

Here are a few more baby pics to tear at your womb strings... (for those of you with wombs)

*Again, taken by Christine Burke, and post processing tinkered with by me

*Ditto

* This one is all Christine

Just a Blonde's Take

ReVisit

I thought I would revisit an old picture I took of one of my favorite subjects...my main man, Axel. Between my home and office you can find this picture in no less than 3 places. It's one of my favorites! And as I was playing around with the colors on it the other day, I somehow managed to make the new edited version my new favorite picture! It kind of has that cool old 70's vibe...which I'm finding to be a new favorite aesthetic.

Just a Blonde's Take

Window Inspiration

If you haven't already heard, there is a big window design challenge going on at Bloomingdale's in good old NYC! Three home designers have accepted the challenge and you can see all 3 window displays and vote here! I have chosen to show you my personal favorite...Eddie Ross!! He created a fabulous window/room with modern and traditional elements. Eddie's blog is a frequent stop of mine. The man knows how to throw a party! He's my go to anytime I'm hosting an event...he's the hostess with the mostess! His ideas are inspiring and for the most part easily affordable. He has a wonderful knack for mixing and matching old china and dinnerware, while creating the most beautiful tables. He's definitely opened up my eyes for spotting treasures in thrift stores and flea markets! So it came as no surprise that I would just fall in love with his window...

Some of the elements are a little more traditional than what I normally would like, but I think he's made them all work in this space that I would have no problem with this being a room in my own house. Way to go Eddie! Which window do you like best?

Just a Blonde's Take

The Pioneer Woman

If I haven't mentioned it before I'm doing it now...I love me some PW! The Pioneer Woman, that is. Her name is Ree Drummond, but to her blogging family she is known as the Pioneer Woman, or PDub, or PW, or...well, you get the picture. She is a woman of many talents, she home schools her 4 punks (children), takes wonderful photos of her daily ranch life, has "like" the best blog ever, and she cooks. As a matter of fact she cooks up a hail storm! I believe she is one of the biggest influences I've had as far as becoming my own home master chef (still in progress)! I have developed a love for cooking, and a part of that has to do with Ree! She provides step by step instructions on her website along with...get this...wait for it...it's truly shocking...step by step PICTURES!! Yes that's right, in addition to putting things into lam eons terms for all of us she has pictures of everything she uses, how she does it, and most importantly the end result! It's really helped me in knowing what things should look like and if I'm on the right track. What exactly does a micro plane look like? What the heck is Welsh Rarebit? And how should roasted red peppers look in the oven? She has opened me up to a whole new world of food, and even better, how to make it MYSELF!

I've always loved food and trying new things, but sometimes I would be afraid of how I could possibly recreate some of my favorite "fancy" cuisine dishes at home. Cooking fish used to freak me out, along with any other type of meat for that matter. And sometimes not knowing what something should look like is a little unnerving. Now in addition to Ree's website, we now are going to have access to a wonderful cookbook of all the Pioneer Woman's favorite recipes! The Pioneer Woman Cooks: recipes from an accidental country girl; It's available for pre-order now! And this isn't your everyday cookbook with a few colored pictures here and there...no sir...her recipes are in full color and with her traditional step by step photos! Take a look at the layout:

And if things couldn't get any better she's going on a book tour!! You can believe that I'm going to be loading up on these and getting them signed for personalized Christmas gifts!! I can't wait to meet PW herself and all her red headed glory!

If you haven't visited Ree's site, please do. You won't regret it, well your waistline might, but it's so worth it! And as PW says...I love you more 'n my luggage!

Just a blonde's take

Face Lift

So for what ever reason, today I felt compelled to give my blog a little face lift. I'm not sure if all the black was getting me down or what, but I feel like I needed something to bring me out of my depressing sad cloud. It's strange but for some reason every fall...or in the words of my friend babalou, Autumn I feel the need to cleanse, make changes, start anew. Maybe it's because fall is my favorite time of year, or maybe it's because for so long fall marked the beginning of a new school year, and even though I haven't been in school for quite some time, the feelings still remain with me to get things going with something new and fresh. Please enjoy the new look and I will have a Halloween post up soon!

Just a Blonde's Take

THIS IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH AMERICA

I'm sorry folks, but I'm going to have to get on my soap box for a minute. I was just on PETA's blog and came across a story about a new sandwich that KFC is testing in a few states. It's called the Double Down. It consists of 2 pieces of fried chicken filet's (which serve as the "bread"), 2 different kinds of cheese (pepper jack and Swiss, I think), bacon, and some new creation called Colonel's sauce. Can you say NASTY? I've never really been a fan of the Colonel, especially after I found out how they treat their chickens, but when they came out with their mashed potato bowls filled with cheese, corn, chicken and all kinds of other nasty stuff, I totally wrote them off. Now KFC has sunk to an all new low, with this "please let me be obese" sandwich. KFC hasn't released the nutrition information on this sandwich yet, but it's estimated that there are over 1200 calories and 80grams of fat in this poor excuse of a sandwich.

And to make matters worse, as I was going through different articles people were actually saying they were disappointed that this sandwich wasn't in their city!!! SERIOUSLY?? Some even went on to comment that if you didn't try this sandwich that you were most definitely a G.D. terrorist! REALLY? I'm a terrorist now because I care about what goes in my body and I want to be healthy? This is what is wrong with America!! People are welcoming obesity into their lives with open arms. One lady even said her 5 year old loves sandwiches and he would love to try this!! What? Parents are so worried about their kids being exposed to Harry Potter books(because they supposedly encourage witchcraft and devil worshipping) and yet they are excited about feeding their children this crap? Way to teach some awesome life lessons! Don't read, just feed!! Ahhhh, I just cannot believe the kind of stupidity it takes to want to eat something like this and to encourage your children to eat it. And to be ignorant enough to say, well if you workout a lot then you can eat this and it won't matter. Hello?? Just because you work off the calories you intake doesn't mean that what you're eating isn't affecting your body in other ways! Not to mention there is practically no nutritional value in this besides protein, excuse me genetically-altered-growth-hormone-injected protein (that's really not good for you either, but that's a whole other story).

If you haven't seen or read Fast Food Nation, go pick it up and you'll have a new outlook on fast food chains in general. I'll leave you with these quotes from the movie...

"There's shit in the meat." "It is a sad fact of life, Don, but the truth is we all have to eat a little shit from time to time." -Not this blonde!

Just a Blonde's Take