Chinese Tea Tasting and a Family Picture

This past weekend provided us a great mix of relaxation and productivity. The weeds are gone, the closet is cleaned(mostly) and that dip in the couch-you know the one- looks just a bit lower. However, as fun as grocery shopping and weed pulling were, the highlight of the weekend was the Chinese Tea Tasting we went to on Saturday. What a great cultural and learning experience! I was stunned to learn of all the different varieties and health benefits to be had from drinking tea, and not to mention impressed with the preparation and delivery of it all. Whew! And to think I considered Lipton my queen bee of tea! All in all, it was a great time learning about the Chinese tradition of drinking tea, and nice to see it alive and well here in Raleigh, NC. You can try for yourself on the last Saturday of every month, or see their website for more information http://www.orientspiration.com/. Chris and I will definitely go back! On another note, our surprisingly sunny Sunday afternoon gave us this silly family picture. I'm not sure what Piper's doing, but it's good for a Monday morning laugh :)I promise he has an adorable face behind all that hair!

Current Events

Some tic tacs of overdue and upcoming goings on in the Scott household:

-Chris and I saw "Fireprooof" a few weekends ago, and I've been meaning to give it a blog thumbs up for a while now. It's a great, God glorifying movie and so worth a Friday night!
-I made cupcakes this weekend and we had a nice picnic at the dog park! I love these cool Spring afternoons and can't wait for some more sunshine.
-A reunion of best friends is on the recent horizon, and a countdown is in order. Some details are still stringy, but for the most part, it's on.
-I'm contemplating doing something about my charcoal thumb...there may be hope after all. Stay tuned! Last night I had so much fun planting little Marigolds with the kids at church; I'm starting to think the gardening thing isn't so bad after all. :) In any case, I'll be pulling up weeds and hopefully mulching be weeks end, wish me luck!
-We have so many exciting things to look forward to this Spring and Summer. The calendar is filling up fast with Easter celebrations, weddings, conferences, retreats, new floors and the like. Chris is REALLY excited about the Worship God 09 conference, and starting to talk about it ALL the time. And I'm planning full speed ahead for a great reunion of friends: T-12 days. That's all for now folks.

Guess who?

Chris' sister recently posted this sweet picture of my little boy husband. Oh my gracious! I love this little red ranger jacket, and now have more insight into why we own Taledaga Nights, haha. He looks so all American in this picture, and reminds me of the infamous Beaver :)

What a stud.

A little PINK in the kitchen :)

Drumroll please.....

This weekend I was over the moon excited to buy my new mixer-a PINK Kitchen Aid handheld. It's beautiful, lightweight, quiet, and splatter free. If it's possible to be in love with a kitchen appliance, then call me cupid ;).

My new mixer was an unexpected blessing to me. After my old mixer kicked the bucket, we started looking around for new ones in the "under $20" mindset. Just for fun, I really got into researching all of these kitchen appliances, and then I saw it...the pink "cook for the cure" mixer by KitchenAid. Of course I was a bit starstruck by the infamous KitchenAid name...add to that the o-so-cute pink color and I was a goner. While I had made my peace with Hamilton Beach, I secretly started to dare I say covet the pink KitchenAid. After all, I do use a mixer ALL THE TIME. But, it was a lot of money- much more than I would normally spend on a mixer(but not as much as those super expensive stand mixers, whew!). Maybe later, but now I thought, we'll stick with Walmart/Target.

And so after I had resolved to part ways with the idea of pink, my queen fairy mommy decided to surprise us with some unexpected cash, just for the mixer she said. How sweet a surprise it was! I was giddy with excitement on our way to Bed, Bath and Beyond, and just LOVE my new kitchen helper. As far as I can tell, it totally lives up to the name. Plus, it goes perfectly with my Pink apron and measuring cups I got for Christmas :) Who knew Kitchen appliances could be this exciting! Thank you Lord, for a wonderful kitchen to enjoy and for pretty pink and quality tools to cook with!

PS-In case you were wondering, that's just a smaller bowl above. My batter usually doesn't look like it's about to erupt over the sides, lol. Although, there's no such thing as too much batter...

I Bark for Ice Cream!

Welcome Back Spring and Jean Skirts!

This weekend was just beautiful! I couldn't ask for better weather, and hope it's here to stay :) Our trip to Goldsberry was great and filled with games, shopping and a sunny outside lunch at the picnic table-the first of the year! The weather was so nice we even put the top down in my mom's car and felt like movie stars:)

Piper probably had the most fun, playing non-stop with his best friend Bebe and enjoying my parent's wonderful backyard. Not to mention getting as much scraps as he could-another reason he loves my parents house :) Aside from our regular weekend chores-grocery shopping, cleaning, ect.-we also enjoyed a few great walks outside in the warm Springy weather. The picture below is at our neighborhood pool-it's not open yet, but still fun to walk around.

To top off the weekend, we took Piper to his(and ours) first ever dog park! It was sooo much fun, and Chris and I even had a great time! Piper was super social and a quick favorite of the other puppies and parents alike. The park was clean and had separate areas for big and small dogs, so Piper was well in his element. It was also off leash so he got to run around and get some great exercise. The area in general was a great discovery for Chris and I, as the dog park was just one part of this complex, which was also home to tennis and basketball courts, soccer fields and nature trails. I think we'll make it a Sunday afternoon routine :)

A Life Quilted By God

After a busy weekend, we were pleasantly surprised to wake up to yet ANOTHER winter wonderland. Our area in Raleigh was a blanket of snow and ice, mostly due to the rain all day on Sunday-so I got a SNOW DAY off of work! As exciting as that sounds though, I am so ready for Spring. I wish the weather would make up it's mind and bring some sunny skies to stay.

Thankfully, the snow allowed me some unexpected and ample time to work on the cake I was making for a baby shower at our monthly CBC Grace Group. I saw this idea online and just loved it.."A Life Quilted by God." These past two months have been "baby crazy" for me with friends, co-workers, and new church family all experiencing the blessing of pregnancy and children. I'm so thankful for all of the new babies that God is bringing into the world around me, and am excited to meet them, watch them grow and hear their stories. :)

Cake Notes:
As I'm still at the very front of my journey in cakes and cake decorating, every new cake is a learning experience. This was a great cake for me because it gave me a ton of good practice with basic icing techniques and different tips. I had only done the "shell" a few times prior, but after this I fee like a pro! Of course there is always room for improvement :)

With this cake, I learned to plan for the unexpected. Always have an abundance of powdered sugar on hand should you need more icing. And again, a little extra planning time goes a long way! I hadn't thought out the color ratios too much, so I ended up wasting a lot of icing because I made WAYY too much of one color, and not enough for another. This cake was also very trying on my patience, because my mixer died about halfway through my first batch of icing...can we say CRISIS! In all fairness, this was not the best mixer and had lived a much longer life than expected considering I use it for everything. I just wish it had better timing :/ In any case, I was determined to press on and am happy to say that while far from ideal, it IS possible to hand mix buttercream icing. Plus, I sure did appreciate this cake much more when it was all said and done! And there's nothing wrong with a little elbow grease every once in a while...though I'll be keeping to that "once" part as long as I can avoid it!

All in all, I was really happy with this cake, and even happier to make it for a friend's shower. Most importantly, it was mmm mmm good!