Just the Facts

Fact: Before this weekend, I had never spent more than 6 hours away from my darling daughter.

Fact: This weekend Mr. Cherry and I left our darling daughter in the care of his mother for over 24 hours.

Fact: Everyone had a wonderful time.

Fact: Even though we had the romance package in a bed and breakfast we fell asleep watching a show about Moose around 9 pm.

Fact: I love my husband and am so blessed to have him in my life and it shouldn't take a special trip to remind me of that.

Big Sister

Have you noticed that I haven't been posting like at all lately? Maybe there isn't anyone still out there!! Well, if you are still reading this, I have a big announcement to make today! Little Peachy is going to be a big sister. 

We found out shortly before Christmas that I was pregnant with our second child. The due date is August 24th and we couldn't be more excited.

Little Peachy talks about the baby in momma's tummy and says that it is going "night, night" right now. She also refers to it as Baby Jesus quite often although I am pretty sure this isn't a case of immaculate conception. :o)

Yesterday she joined me at my prenatal appointment. If you ask her what the baby says she will tell you, "Woosh, woosh, woosh."

Peachy is quite a good little mommy to her baby dolls, but when it comes to real babies, she would rather admire them from afar.

Any ideas on what we should call this little one while we wait for the arrival??

Foodie Friday: Cranberry Orange Scones

I have a slight obsession with the Food Network. One of my favorite shows is the Barefoot Contessa. I just love Ina. I love her recipes, her style, and the peek into her Hamptons lifestyle. Its not secret that I also love scones, as evidenced here, here, here, and here. It was not a tough decision on my part to give Ina's Cranberry Orange Scones a try. And they lived up to all of my expectations.
Ingredients:

• 4 cups plus 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar, plus additional for sprinkling
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
• 3/4 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
• 4 extra-large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup cold heavy cream
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons water or milk, for egg wash
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
• 4 teaspoons freshly squeezed orange juice

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix 4 cups of flour, 1/4 cup sugar, the baking powder, salt and orange zest. Add the cold butter and mix at the lowest speed until the butter is the size of peas. Combine the eggs and heavy cream and, with the mixer on low speed, slowly pour into the flour and butter mixture. Mix until just blended. The dough will look lumpy! Combine the dried cranberries and 1/4 cup of flour, add to the dough, and mix on low speed until blended.

Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead it into a ball. Flour your hands and a rolling pin and roll the dough 3/4-inch thick. You should see small bits of butter in the dough. Keep moving the dough on the floured board so it doesn't stick. Flour a 3-inch round plain or fluted cutter and cut circles of dough. (Being that I made these in February, I opted to use a heart shaped cutter.) Place the scones on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Collect the scraps neatly, roll them out, and cut more circles.

Brush the tops of the scones with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are browned and the insides are fully baked. The scones will be firm to the touch. Allow the scones to cool for 15 minutes and then whisk together the confectioners' sugar and orange juice, and drizzle over the scones.

New Desk

Ever since we moved into this house I have been wanting a desk for our main living area. And not just any desk. I had some very specific requirements for this desk. Because this desk would be out in the open I wanted it to look nice with all of our existing furniture. I also wanted to be able to shut it, ala the secretary desk. A bonus would be lots of storage for holding the clutter of our lives. (This clutter currently was being housed on a bakers rack in our living room. I could never seem to keep the rack organized and it was also an eye sore of papers and various other detritus searching for a home.)

It had to be able to hold our laptop for computing and storage. Oh and one more thing, and I couldn't blow the budget on this one piece of furniture.You can imagine that it took a bit to find my perfect desk. However, if you know me, you know that challenges, especially in shopping, don't so much to slow me down. I finally found a desk that met all of my requirements at Wal-Mart of all places. There was only one problem. While the price was reasonable, it wasn't inexpensive enough to sneak into the cart on a normal Wal-Mart run with the groceries and paper products.

For a while both of the Wal-Marts in our area were carrying the desk from their Canopy line of furniture. After several months of stalking, though, the bigger of our Wal-Marts stopped carrying the desk. Did this mean the end of my dream desk? Would the other Wal-Mart get rid of it as well? Would it go on clearance in the meantime or would it simply fade into oblivion? Thankfully, the desk remained in stock at that Wal-Mart and eventually Mr. Cherry and I agreed that we could save up the money that I make selling items in my Etsy store to purchase the desk. Then during our family Christmas exchange, I opened a document box. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice document box, I just didn't know that I needed a document box.

But I did know that I could use the Wal-Mart gift card that was nestled in the box to purchase THE DESK!! We went that very same day to pick the desk up and Mr. Cherry and his sister even got assembled so I could transfer everything from the bakers rack into its new cozy home.

I absolutely love our new desk. It serves all of its needs and best of all, can be organized and shut when company comes. Last week I added the chair, an IKEA purchase.

Valentine Picture

If you are looking for a fun and easy way to say "I love you" today, check out this simple picture we took of Peachy.

I cut five hearts out of two shades of scrapbook paper, punched holes on each side, threaded through some ribbon and we were ready for our shoot. I used the picture in a Shutterfly card (because I had a free set coming to me that needed to get used), but it would be just as cute and easy to print them up and make cards of your own.
Hope you are having a fabulous Valentine's Day yourself!