Occuper Comme une Abeille

On a drive home from a recent trip home for my dear friend Carly's Wedding we drove through an area just south of Brevard County on I 95 where the orange trees were in full bloom and the almost overwhelming smell of orange blossom made me think, "Ok, it's officially spring time!"

Like the busy bees that pollinate the orange trees to produce the juicy delicious fruit for which Florida is known, for me spring is always been a busy time! This past week Hobie, I have begun crafting and cooking like maniacs! We made a lovely decor piece for the bathroom and a few loaves of delicious crusty french bread...do you think the french just call it bread?

Quatre par Cinq {4 x 5}

As you all may know my taste in decor is a mix of Pottery Barn and Anthropologie...Both are effortlessy hip and fashionable and both are out of my price range. Instead of simply walking into these stores and walking out with a chic new piece of art or home decor I take a stroll and gather inspiration! And of course I gather plenty of inspiration from my Eggs and Butter!

This week for Craft Day I have an  oh sew lovely patchwork Pillow Cover! The patchwork is 4 squares by five squares hence Quatre par Cinq!



L'Inspiration

Pièce de résistance

C'est la Saison pour. ..Strawberries

tis the season for...Strawberries!

Still inspired from my recent visit to the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World (aka Plant Cit, FL), I thought this week's baking project should be devoted to Strawberry Shortcakes d'amour. Sounds fancy huh? It took a little bit to get going, but once we found our groove and Hobie read the instructions correctly ...we were cookin'.  For one when instructions say to use a food processor either use a real food processor or the high setting of your stand mixer, because God bless the Beaba Babycook food processor, but it was not nearly industrious enough to handle 3 cups of cake flour and butter! After creating a disaster or two in my tiny kitchen we figured it out and got some really lovely and yummy strawberry shortcakes.

!Check out the Cuisine page for the recipe!

PS: If you are Melissa Raburn continue reading ;)
- The shortcakes turned out a lot like cakey biscuits and delicious

La Plage (Beach)

Saturday we took a much needed trip to Lovers Key! It is a beautiful state park with gorgeous scenery and a nice, quiet beach! If you are ever in the area I highly recommend it. For the majority of the day Jorge and Hobie worked on shell finding and ID and I attempted to paddle board using an old wind surfing board...FYI paddle boards and wind surfing boards are named differently because they work differently. I suppose that on a less windy day the wind surfing board would have made a better substitute for a paddle board, but it wasn't...what is was however... was FUN! I've posted a few pictures, for all of them take a look at the Aventures page!

Sandpiper Photo By: JorgeG

Blue Eyes Photo by: AmyG

!Aventure!

This week our !Aventure! actually took place on Thursday. Hobie and I trekked up to Plant City for the opening day of the world famous Plant City Strawberry Festival! What a fabulous day visiting local FFA booths, learning that the more glitter the better, photo opps with a former Strawberry Queen in the Hall of Queens, and stroll through the livestock barn! What a wonderful day with wonderful friends!

--->See all of our pictures on the Aventures link

Sew la vie

Sew la vie........

On a recent outing in Jacksonville my best friend Carly, Hobie and I took a walk through one of our (mine and Carly's...not Hobie's) favorite stores....Anthropologie! No sooner did we walk in without any intentions of purchase, did we of course walk out with our tiny bags bearing the name of the oh so hip retailer. One of my favorite things about Anthro is the home section...specifically the aprons. They've got that, "I'm so cool and well traveled, without any effort at all," look to them and the soon to be Mrs. Gunby and I can't help but ogle over the beautiful patterns and "uniqueness" of it all! 

Friends, I tell you this because, while I'm willing to sometimes spend stupid amounts of money on a dress for some reason the thought of spending $30.00 on something I'm going to purposefully get filthy seems like an even worse idea...

So today, Craft Day, I decided to make one of these artful aprons...

Mis en Place

Mise en place (pronounced [miz ɑ̃ plas], literally "putting in place") is a French phrase defined by the Culinary Institute of America as "everything in place", as in set up. It is used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients (e.g., cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components) that a cook will require for the menu items that he or she expects to prepare during his/her shift...

Like many of you, my shift starts at 6am on Monday and ends around 8pm on Friday! Even though I don't take a break from Hobie, we let loose on the weekend! My mis en place looks something like this:

• Monday- Mis en Place Mondays
• Literally put everything in its place. Then organize and arrange my ingredients (make a plan for the rest of the week).
• Tuesday- Cuire or Baking Tuesdays
• To me, Tuesday is the second day of the week and because "B" is the second letter in our alphabet I think it only fitting to do something that starts with a "B" on Tuesdays...I of course BAKE! 
• Wednesday- Métier or Crafting Wednesdays
• Following suit, Wednesday being the third day of the week, I do something that starts with the third letter..."C" I craft!
• Thursday- Chien or Doggy Thursdays
• Reserved for our beloved canines Marley and Sandy. Grooming, playing etc...
• Fridays- Festive Fridays
• Fun, Festive, Field Trip Fridays! Southwest Florida is a beautiful area with lots of adventures to be had!

Hobie helping make everything "Dyson Neat" by: AmyG 02.29.2011

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Ok so, back to Tuesday! For this very special Tuesday I have baked the Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies...sort of. I have found that baking in the presence of an almost 9 month old little boy is...challenging and messy (so there goes my mis en place), but it's fun, challenging and messy and I would change a second!

-->The Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe is posted on the Cuisine page if you're interested

Hobie's Recipe Hunt by: AmyG 03.01.2011

As domestics we start to develop our own "mis en place", and God help anyone who messes with it! Except of course the Eggs and Butter :)