I promise I’ll quit yammering on about this soon but seriously, my little girl is growing up in the blink of an eye!  She turned two just a couple of weeks ago and I swear, it’s as though some switch has been flipped over to big girl.  The last traces of baby are slipping away.  In yet another change to this effect, she moved up into the next age group class at daycare.  I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I couldn’t stop myself from tearing up when her teacher told me there was room for her in the next class.  The transition went so smoothly, it’s almost as though nothing is different…for her, anyway.  We’ve grown so close to the teachers in her old class, it was hard to imagine not seeing them every day.  I knew I wanted to bring some sort of small gift to thank them for taking such great care of our girl, and as I always do, I wanted to bake or make them something.

Then I suddenly remembered a snippet of a conversation months ago with one of the teachers, when she said she wasn’t much for sweets but preferred salty snacks.  Obviously, not loving sweets is a foreign concept to me, but I wanted to think of something I could make that would satisfy both the sweet and the salt lovers.  This fit the bill perfectly.  These truffles have a crunchy pretzel-peanut butter filling that is coated in a smooth shell of bittersweet chocolate.  I topped mine with a peanut butter drizzle but you could also use crushed pretzels or just leave them plain.  The filling takes just minutes to mix up and a few more to roll into balls.  The coating should be pretty quick too, unless you’re crazy like me and prefer to temper your chocolate for coating.  Whatever way you decide to do it, you’ll end up with a bite-sized, salty-sweet, chocolate peanut butter treat.  The best kind.

As I mentioned recently, I’ve been on a home organization/home decoration kick since the calendar flipped to January.  We’ve been in our house for nearly four years now, but it’s all the stuff I’ve been doing the last several months that has made it really look and feel like us.  It would come as a surprise to no one that I’m incredibly particular about most things, and that definitely includes my home decor.  I would rather wait and think about exactly how I want a room to look than just throw in some generic decor for the sake of having it look “finished”.  Our front living room (pictured here) has perplexed me for a long time, and so I’ve been mulling this over for more than three years.

I knew I wanted some sort of art between the two wall vases above our love seat.  I thought of a large canvas of the family, but since that’s what we have on the mantle in our main family room, it seemed redundant.  Plus, as much as I love canvases, they become outdated quickly with the kids growing at the mind-boggling rate that they do.  It’s a pretty large space to fill and practically everything I could think of to fill it was not something I wanted to commit to long term.  Finally one evening while lying on the couch staring at the space, this idea came to me.  A frame of instagrams!  Fills the large space, still reflects our family, but no permanent commitment required.  PERFECTO!

So, I got to work and this idea quickly became a reality.  First step – finding a frame.  Now, let me just say I’m sure you could find something just wonderful in an antique shop, paint it as you see fit, and get the same look.  However, I’m so darned particular I knew it would take me ages to find my ideal frame in an antique shop and if there is one thing I don’t have, it’s free time to go searching around town in a bunch of stores.  Instead, I opted to order a custom frame from one of my favorite Etsy shops Rusty Mill.  (Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Rusty Mill and they didn’t even know I was a blogger until a couple of days ago.  I just like their work, a lot!)  I’ve ordered from them a couple times before and have always loved the products.  I measured the space, chose my dimensions (30″ x 40″), and they crafted my frame (no glass needed – yay!)  While the frame was on its way, I ordered my prints from Printstagram.  (Again, no affiliation and they don’t know I’m writing this post.  This is just the company I decided to use.)  Based on the size of the frame I had ordered, I knew that a few sets of their 4-inch square prints would fill the frame nicely.  Again, I’m sure you could find some other printing method to end up with very similar results.  I didn’t have time to mess with trying to size and print them all myself, so this was the simplest option for me.

I bought a couple of packages of mini clothes pins at Joann’s and painted them gold with metallic craft paint.  (If you think that sounds time consuming, I’m with you.  I totally thought it would take forever and it actually took about 10 minutes.  No need for perfect detailing – just slap the paint on and let dry briefly.)  I prefer the look of a uniform neutral-ish color for the clothes pins because I think too bright or too many colors might detract from the images themselves, but that’s really a personal style choice.

When the frame and prints arrived, I dug up some old hemp twine I had from some craft project of years past.  I made up a single row of test prints and held it up so I could see about how many would fit in a row, and how many rows I could fit into the frame.  I used a staple gun to secure the prints, row by row, to the back of the frame.  Then I hung the frame in the place of honor and voila!  I was finally happy with the space that had been nagging at me for so long.  I absolutely love the way this project has added personality and transformed the room.  Our guests always enjoy looking through the photos, and the kids love to stand on the love seat and talk about what is happening in all the different pictures.

This is a fun and easy home decor project that can be easily adapted to whatever space you have available.  I’m excited to switch out some of the images in a few months with newer memories, and we’ll save the others in a book or album of some kind.  Hooray for ever-changing wall art!

What do you love best about the salad you see here?  For most people, I’m sure the answer would be the bacon.  While I do like the bacon (definite progress from a few years ago), I am all about the hard boiled eggs.  I love them.  (Don’t even get me started on deviled eggs.  They are my kryptonite.  Gah!)  But aside from my love of eggs, I love this salad overall.  The components just work so very well together.  The eggs provide a bit of creaminess, the bacon gives bacony goodness, obviously.  With the crunchy spinach leaves, earthy mushrooms and slight bite of the red onion, the combination is stellar.  This would make a really nice starter to a meal or does well on its own as a light-ish meal.

1. To start out the month of March, I finished up my last week of carrying the call pager of residency.  Handing it off for the last time was amazing.
2. At work last month, I had the opportunity to culture my own cells and then visualize and karyotype my own chromosomes.  It was so cool!
3. I got a flat tire on my car one evening that could only be fixed at the dealership while they ordered the new tire.  The very next morning while driving Ben’s car – no joke – another flat.  That’s two in 24 hours, in two vehicles.  Grrrr.  (For the record, both were nails/hunks of metal, so not due to my driving skills.  Ha!)  I’m so thankful my dad insisted I learn how to change a flat.  And also grateful to the seven(!) people who offered to help me fix it.
4. Boo for snow but yay for a sweet little snow angel!
5. We have a memory jar to record fun moments from 2013.  I had to jot down this one from Andrew: “When I’m big, I’m going to be a scientist-garbage man-police man.”  He then gave a detailed description of how he would change in and out of those various uniforms.
6. Knitting got real when I worked on the sleeves of my sweater.  Five needles at a time!  Actually not as hard as it looks, but I was freaked out at first.
7. We love IU basketball wins, but they are so much sweeter when witnessed with my brother Steve.  I love seeing his reaction when they win!
8. Sometimes they play well together.  Sometimes.
9. Caroline’s room got a makeover from nursery to big girl room.  Andrew was pretty excited to watch Dad paint.
10. We spent a fun weekend afternoon at the Children’s Museum.  The kids’ love so many of the exhibits but for me, the hall of mirrors never gets old :)
11. The best boy I could ever ask for, so the shirt seemed fitting.
12. My sweet girl is starting to show interest in baking.  Right now her main job is measuring cup drummer.
13. Andrew picked out a honey bear at our butcher shop, and then out of the blue spent the whole week asking for a biscuit with strawberries and honey.  The following weekend, I made it a reality.  He was beyond thrilled.
14. Caroline had her first haircut!  And by the way, tolerated it 1000% better than her brother did his first time.
15. Sweet snuggly girl.
16. I finished my sweater!  I still can’t believe that I completed a sweater that looks like something I would actually want to buy.  And it’s super comfy.
17. We had our living room repainted and the carpet replaced, which meant a temporary move of all furniture into our front room.  The kids were in heaven with this fort/jungle gym set up.
18. Snuggling with my girl on her last night of being a one year old.  I cannot believe how time has flown.
19. Caroline absolutely loves her big girl bed, and I love seeing my sleepy girl in the early morning time.
20. Ben’s mom brought Caroline this beautiful bouquet from her garden at her birthday party.  So sweet, and we are so ready for spring flowers!

When I planned the menu for Caroline’s birthday party, these bars were something of an afterthought.  They helped round out the dessert portion of the menu, adding another berry treat for our little berry fiend.  I suspected they would be good but oh.my.gosh, people, these were definitely the highlight of the spread.  The buttery, crumbly crust with a hint of lemon and the amazing blackberry filling are an irresistible combination.  These bake up very thick, so you can cut them on the small side.  The recipe doubles easily in a 9 x 13-inch pan to feed a larger crowd.  This recipe will undoubtedly become a total staple for bringing to spring and summer parties, potlucks, and more.  I’m looking forward to trying it with other fruits as well.