Post by color

Stricken with YELLOW fever over my new shoes. I almost bought them at my small hometown dept. store in MN, then had un-buyer's remorse when I got back to CO, so my mom grabbed a pair and sent them to me (thanks mom!). And I paid one-fifth of the original price; joy.

Fearing GRAY as I near my 35th birthday (2 months away) and knowing someday plucking probably won't do the trick.

Anticipating ORANGE, BLACK, PURPLE and GREEN as October/Halloween is on the horizon. I'm SUCH a fall girl! I was practically drooling as I browsed the fall/Halloween decor at Hobby Lobby the other day; oh my heavens, serious cuteness. And I think we have pretty much narrowed down the kids' costumes; the boys for sure are decided. I'm still working with Isabel. I'm not sure how to pull off Isa the Iguana from Dora...?

Awaiting BLUE, as we found out a new nephew will be arriving early in 2010 (Kelley and Leo are having a boy!)

Thinking it's a nice time for a WHITE wedding... my friend Bonnie has been doing a wedding blog for a few months, all grouped by gorgeous color patterns and incorporating all things homemade, primarily Etsy stuff. Even though I'm not planning a wedding, I've enjoyed looking at her blog and the plethora of eye candy on there. Seriously - beautiful pillows, jewelry, accessories, shoes, etc. She has posts like this:
and this-
Check out all the pretty things at Inventing Weddings.

Tickled PINK by the funny things my daughter says. The other day she told me, "my pink elephant's canine is really fluffy." I asked her what she thought a canine is, and she replied "it's a kind of tooth that's in your mouth." So she knew a meaning for canine, but I never figured out why her pink elephant's canine would have been fluffy. Crazy girl.

What is BLACK and WHITE and read ALL over?... I just finished The Count of Monte Cristo for book club - all 1,467 pages of it. I sort of had a negative attitude about reading it for some reason, but oh my, I LOVED it (and love book clubs for continually expanding my literary repertoire). What an amazing, adventurous read with themes like pirates, prison, revenge, forginess, repentence, love, suicide, murder, bandits, and more. And a FABULOUS ending. Makes me want to dive into more of the classics (and watch the movie, which I hear is really good).

Eating PEACH. Love all the produce at this time of year (corn, tomatoes, peaches, etc). One of my favorite desserts is peach cobbler, and I have a divine, easy recipe for peach cobbler that is moist, batter-y and fabulous. I will share. (it is also very good with berries). And do you know the easy peach-peeling trick? Bring a pot of water to a boil, add the peaches whole and boil for 30 or 40 seconds. Remove from the pot and submerge in ice water until cooled. The skins literally come right off just using your hands! Thanks Lara for the tip on an easy, fabulous time-saver.

Easy Batter Fruit Cobbler
4 Tbs. butter
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 plus 1 Tb. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk
2 heaping cups of sliced fresh peaches or nectarines, or whole blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries or a combination of fruits (or a 12-ounce package of frozen berries)

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.

Put butter in an 8-inch square or 9-inch round pan; set in oven to melt. When butter has melted, remove pan from oven. Whisk flour, 3/4 cup of sugar, baking powder and salt in small bowl. Add milk; whisk to form a smooth batter. Pour batter into pan, then scatter fruit over batter. Sprinkle with remaining 1 Tb. of sugar. Bake until batter browns and fruit bubbles, 50 to 60 minutes. Serve warm or room temperature with a dollop of whipped cream or a small scoop of vanilla ice cream if desired.

Worrying about RED and GREEN. Lucas seems to have all his colors down, but consistently mixes up red and green. Could he be color blind? Both of my brothers are, and mothers carry the color blindness gene, so I'm kind of concerned. Guess I'll keep watching and see if it remains a problem. Hope not.