Top 2 Tuesday



So I hooked up with "The Undomestic Momma" on her "Top 2 Tuesday"! I am loving these little linky things (at least that's what I call them. I don't know the official name ha!) Anyway.... This weeks top 2 is "Favorite Jobs". So.... without further ado here is my Top 2!

#1- My Favorite job that I have EVER had is being a Stay at home mommy to this little girlie!

If you were to ask me throughout any part of my life "What do you want to be when you grow up", the answer was always.... a mommy. I prayed for this little girl and I feel so blessed to be able to stay home with her and watch her grow. Staying at home definitely has its challenges. I must admit there are days when I need a break from the madness of my BUSY little one. She keeps me on my toes that's for sure. I always try and make sure that we get out of the house at least once a day even if its just taking a walk. She does not do well just saying cooped up in the house all day so its fun to go on our "daily outings". I don't know if I will remain a SAHM forever but I sure am enjoying it right now ;)



#2- My second Favorite job ever was my first job working at a bakery. I went off to college for 1 semester and came back to San Antonio to go to Culinary School. While in school I found a job at a bakery/restaurant called "Joseph's Storehouse". They make EVERYTHING form scratch and its all sooooo good!

I was pretty scared to start working there. It is a very well known bakery in San Antonio and I really wanted to do a great job. I jumped right in and learned all of the recipes. I learned more there then all the years I went to culinary school combined. I learned all of their famous recipes many of which I still use. It was a very busy place (which I loved) I would wake up at 5 am so I could be at work by 6. During the Thanksgiving and Christmas times were by far the busiest. There were only 3 bakers and we would produce up to 200 orders (pies and cakes) a day. Here are just some of the things we made.

This is the Caramel Apple Pie

 (From left) Apple Cobbler, Lemon meringue pie, Chocolate cake and Butter Pecan Cookies

Well that's my Top 2! Happy Tuesday Y'all!!!!

Friends, Food and Shopping!!!

So Yesterday My friend Annie and I went to the "Boerne Market Days". Two of our friends were selling some of their things at a booth there and we decided it would be a fun thing to go and see them and also have a fun girls day and Oh did we ever! It ended up being just what we both needed. So Fun! and a perfect way to kick off the upcoming Christmas shopping. Annie has just started her blog so we decided that we were going to document every move and stop (so we could blog about it) So everywhere we went we took pictures.It was so much fun being able to stroll through all of the shops and the Market booths at our own leisure not having to worry about a fussy or unhappy baby. The day started off with meeting Annie and driving out to Boerne while sipping our Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Chocolates. When we got there we went over to the Market Booths to find our friends Stephanie and Emily.

Here they are at their booth. Emily (on the left) sells adorable stationary and Steph (right) makes infused glass jewelry. They both also paint beautiful paintings. Emily actually made the painting in Hannah's room.



After that we walked around to all of the other booths and as we were about to leave I saw the CUTEST Turkey dress that I just had to buy for Hannah.

 I got it from the cutest woman who makes all kinds of Bows, Dresses, Tutus and flowers. Her business is called "Cutie Bow Tooty"! Isn't that the cutest name ever!

After that we were starving so we decided to go to the Bear Moon Bakery for lunch. This place is super famous for all of their baked goods and they also have great breakfasts and lunches as well.

Here we are at our table

We decided to share a sandwich and both get soup. So we got the French Dip Pannini and Roasted Poblano Corn Chowder. Seriously.... The BEST sandwich I have EVER had!

 The soup was amazing as well!





Then we made our way down to the rest of the shops and stopped by a place called Ella Blue. We both found these "Show Stopping" necklaces!

Then we wanted to get our picture taken together and these 3 older women saw us and came and told us they would take it. They thought we were so funny that they even wanted to take our picture with their personal camera. We got a big laugh out of that one.

All in all it was a super fun day and I must say... "Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas"!



Baking with my Baby!

Today I was a baking machine and I had this little girl to "Help" me.

We made Pumpkin Cheesecake, Bread pudding and Buttermilk Pie. I felt like I was back working at the bakery. I was making all of this stuff for my mom. She was hosting a party tonight and needed desserts. All of these desserts remind me that the Holidays are officially here!

Here is the Pumpkin Cheesecake. My FAVORITE!!!!

This is Buttermilk Pie! Its not much to look at but it tastes AMAZING! Its a Southern thing ;)

My Happy little helper!

I didn't get a pic of the bread pudding but its delicious too. Anyway.... Happy Friday Yall!!!!





Show us your life Friday! My bathroom!



So this week's "Show us your life" is on Bathrooms. I gotta tell ya... I wasn't super excited about this one because I mean come on... How exciting are bathrooms anyway. And my bathroom isn't the best in the world but I like it ;) I really like having a separate tub and shower and I love my garden tub. Its so nice to just sit and take a long bath after an even longer day ha! Here are a few pictures of my Master Bathroom.

 Ok.... And now to the "Good Stuff"! This is all of my favorite cleaning supplies I use for my bathrooms. From left to right- CLR, Bar Keepers Friend, Disinfecting Wipes and Clorox toilet bowl cleaner. I LOVE these products! Especially the CLR! It took me forever to find something that would take off all of those water stains on our shower and CLR does the trick quick.

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

This Wednesday I am LOVING my Mom! I love her everyday but I wanted to focus on her today because she means so much to me and she helps me out so much with Hannah. She absolutely adores my sweet baby and I love to watch the two of them together. My mom calls Hannah her Best Friend and I know one day Hannah will say the same thing about her. When Hannah was born I had post-pardom depression and my mom helped me tremendously. She taught me how to be a mom. I had no idea what I was doing and I was TERRIFIED. Instead of saying... "Suck it up" like some moms would,she was incredibly patient and was there for me anytime I needed (Which was a lot) Now she still helps me by taking care of Hannah when I need her (or when she just misses her) and she likes to wash and iron Hannah's clothes (which I am so grateful for b/c I hate ironing) I also LOVE the fact that she is just a little bit obsessed with buying clothes for Hannah! She has probably bought 99% of all her clothes. She likes to find things on eBay and pick out outfits and buy EVERYTHING that matches that outfit. I am so thankful for our new relationship that we have developed since having Hannah in our lives.

I LOVE her!!!

Hannah is 9 months!

My Sweet baby girl is 9 months now! She has been an absolute JOY every day of these 9 months! She is now a Full time walker. She took her first step around 7 1/2 months and started really walking at 8 months. Now, she NEVER crawls anymore. She thinks she is waaayyyy to big for that ha! People cant believe that she is walking so early but I had a feeling she would.... The girl sat up at 4 months old and was also crawling at 4 months. I guess she cant wait to grow up :( Her favorite thing to do is "Explore".She loves to get into everything and touch and taste everything.I have to make sure all of the doors in the house are shut or I will find her going into every room. The main room she loves is our bedroom. She loves to find our throw pillows (which are sometimes on the floor if the beds not made ha!) and chew on the beads.

She is getting smarter and smarter every day. We are doing "Your Baby can Read" and every day we watch videos and do flash cards and to my amazement she has really caught on. Her favorite thing to watch are the videos. They have become a lifesaver. If I ever need to get ready or get something done I can let her watch a "Baby can Read" Video and she LOVES it! We do the flashcards twice a day and I will show her 2 cards at a time and call out a word and let her pick which card goes with the word and she has started to get almost all of the words right every time.We also play the "Color Game" in which I will hold up 2 different colors and say the colors several times and then ask her to choose a certain color and she is starting to get all of her colors right. I just love seeing her little brain go to work.
She has started saying (while waving) "Hi". And the one thing she really loves to do is shake her head "No". It is the funniest thing ever. Sometimes she shakes it so much I think she might get dizzy.

She eats about 4 times a day and has bottles when she wakes up and goes to bed and at her 2 nap times. The one thing I wish she was better at was eating food. She has always been a choker and she has a big gag reflex. I am hoping that this phase will soon be over and she can get better at eating "real food".

Before I know it she will be driving a real car :(

Show us your life Friday! Desserts and Bows!!!



This Weeks "Show us Your Life" is all about what people make! I'm so excited I get to participate in this one! I make Desserts and Bows! I have only been doing bows for the past couple months now but I've been making desserts and pastries since I was 14. I started my own Holiday dessert and pie business at 15 and have always had a love for pastry making. I went to Culinary school and have been a pastry chef professionally since I was 20 years old. My new favorite thing to make is cupcakes. I love to come up with different flavors of cake, filling and frosting. Here are just a few pictures of some of the things I have done.

These are Chocolate fudge cupcakes filled with chocolate mousse and chocolate buttercream.

 These are "Lemon Meringue cupcakes. Lemon cake with a lemon curd filling and toasted meringue on top.

 These are strawberry cream cupcakes with fresh strawberries on top.

 These are my mini chocolate and strawberry cupcakes with fondant flowers on top.

 This is my personal fav! Pistachio raspberry cream cake. Butter cake with a raspberry cream filling covered in pistachios and fresh raspberries on top!

 Top left- Dutch apple crumb cheesecake tart and Bottom Right- Resses Peanut Butter cup cheesecake

Like I said these are just a few of the desserts I've done and taken pictures of. I can pretty much do any dessert you can think of.

And NOW.... for the bows ha! Ive shown you my bows before but I thought I would show y'all a few recents I've done

Happy Friday Y'all!!!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

So I decided to participate in Jamie's (over at This Kind of Love) What I'm Loving Wednesday! This week I am loving Starbucks! Make that... EVERY week I am loving Starbucks but especially this week because they came out with their annual Holiday drinks and cups!

I have 4 different drinks that I am currently rotating (depending on my mood) They are (in order of preference) as follows...
#1- Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate
#2- Toffee Mocha latte with Whip
#3- Eggnog Latte no foam with Whip
#4- Gingerbread Latte

Recently I am always going with the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. I love the salty sweet combo but if I need a little kick I'll get a latte.

I am also LOVING these women!

 

For those of you that aren't familiar... These are "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" and yes I know.... There isn't much that is REAL about these women but I must admit that watching the show is my guilty pleasure. I actually love all of the housewives seasons. New York, Jersey and Beverly Hills are definitely at the top of the list (Atlanta is too ghetto for me ha!)

And last but not least I am loving the fact that I get to dress my little doll up in her Fall wardrobe now.

I just love little sweaters and tights and coats! And lets face it... now that its getting colder and sleeveless and strapless aren't options, I can feel free to drink some extra hot chocolates and eggnog lattes because hey... I'm all bundled up!





Out and About with my Best Friend!

I have a new Best Friend now. I have known her for not quite 9 months now but its one of those friendships that you just know is going to last forever. When I first met her I didn't know what to think of her. I guess you could say I was scared of her... make that TERRIFIED! But... as time went on I became more and more in love with her and now she is a friend that I do pretty much everything with. Would you like to meet her???? well her name is.... Hannah Grace! (Big shocker I know ;))

Today was a great day of being out and about in this beautiful weather (High of 72 today) and roaming around Gruene. I am really starting to love this little town just 4 miles from my home. Hannah and I have gone into Gruene every week for the past month and its becoming our favorite place. We started out by going to the Cupcake shop. I LOVE this place! Its so cute and quaint and a fun place to just sit and have a cupcake (or two ha!)

 This is the one we chose... Red Velvet Yummmm!

After that we decided to go over to this place called "The Stone". I  had driven by it several times and never went in until today and I'm so glad we did! Its a Christian coffee shop and bookstore. They had several places around the store to sit and read and they even had a children's section. So we decided to sit at the most precious little pink and green table (which by the way... matched her outfit) and read some books.

I LOVE this shop! I have never seen a coffee shop/bookstore have a little place for children and this place had tons of Christian children's books. We are definitely going back!