Weekend in MN

I had a great girls weekend in Minnesota a few weekends ago. It was a short time that by way too fast but it was wonderful to have some solid quality time with some of my favorite people (it's crazy to think that we have known each other for almost 10 years now!). And we have to spend as much time as possible with Christine before she moves to the other side of the world...aka, Africa.

Love you girls! Ashley, Janine, Me, Carolyn and Christine at the apple orchard. How did we spend so much time in that random building?

Relaxing with some tea at Ashley's.

I could really get used to waking up to this view.

We did a lot in a short amount of time but we probably had the most fun with the viewfinders. "I can't even believe what I am looking at!" May the fun live on through Manu.

Thanks for hosting us Ashley! And thank you Carolyn for taking time out of your crazy schedule to hang out with us! It was great to be with you both and I only wish that we all lived closer to each other. I guess the distance just makes our time together even better.

25 weeks

It's been a while without pictures so I guess it's time for a new one, no matter how weird it is! 25 weeks...playing dress up with the 'treasures' found while going through old stuff at my parents house. It didn't quite zip up due to the belly bump. Oh, and my 5 year old niece Gwen took this picture. I have grown a lot since the last pic as you can see.

Vanilla Sugar

Do you know what? I think vanilla bean is too expensive, which is too bad because I would love to experiment with vanilla bean recipes. Awhile ago, I went to the Spice House in Old Town and tried some of their 'vanilla sugar'. It was so yummy and aromatic but also about 10 bucks...way too much for this cheap girl. I thought, I could make that for WAY less! It looked like it was just made with sugar, vanilla bean and cinnamon (there was also a version with lavender). The problem is that some stores sell one vanilla bean for almost 10 bucks which is why I was so excited to find it at World Market for only 3 bucks!

So I made my own version of vanilla sugar by combining the seeds of one vanilla bean, sugar and cinnamon and ground them all up together in my mini food processor. I have used it so much since I made it...on toast, bagels, in my coffee, in pancake batter, to sweeten whipped cream and to make homemade granola.

I would definitely recommend adding some vanilla bean to your cinnamon sugar...and also going to Spice House if you haven't...and World Market.