Soo, I have been meaning to tell you guys, but um, we got baby chicks. BABY CHICKS. Well, they are getting so much bigger now, but a few weeks ago they were teency, tiny and so cute. Now? Well they squawk a lot and to be honest they are really not the smartest animals. We got the chicks because I really wanted a good source of eggs for cooking. I still plan to use a mix of store-bought eggs for baking since we only have three chicks, but I cannot wait to fry a fresh egg. I mean, it’s gonna be so good. They are still living inside, but my dad and younger brother just built their coop outside so they will be moving soonish. Having them inside is a little smelly, but lucky for me they are living downstairs with the boys. Once the barn is all done though, they will be my neighbors. Thinking I may not need my alarm anymore… We are thinking they will start to lay their first eggs sometime in the middle of August. When that happens, there will be lots and lots of photos, but until then, here are their “we are two days old” photos.
Here is a chick today, at 5 weeks olds.
Hoping I do not do this to the fresh eggs. BAD DAY.
Moving on… A few “must make”s from around the web: Watermelon and Peach fresh Fruit Cake// Gimme please! Mocktails// So my kind of drinks! Spicy Quick Pickled Radishes// I need to try picking veggies already! Rhubarb and Strawberry Quinoa Crumble// So pretty! Some of my favorite posts from May:
Tripple Berry Kahlua Crisp with Double the Crumble, Pink Watermelon Lemonade Slushies, Grilled Caprese Toast with Burrata Cheese + Grilled Avocados, French Toast Crepes, Raspberry Smoothie Bellini, 20 Minute Brown Butter Chunky Basil Pesto Pasta, The TJ Hooker Pizza, Spinach and Artichoke Corn Fritters with Brie, Vegan chocolate Fudge Popsicles. I am headed to Florida with my grandma in exactly seventeen days and I could not be more excited! I realize this photo is probably somewhere in Hawaii, but it shows palm trees and tropical weather and I just can’t wait!! Many of this month’s recipes reflect my excitement for all things tropical. {Image via} My brothers – Boys being boys, making big bonfires in the backyard.
Trying to get a good photo.
Roasting S’mores on a late spring night.
This scene and these flowers are just gorgeous. Check them out. Making pretty things with fresh summer raspberries.
And playing with pretty pink roses.
I loved, loved, loved reading this post and this post about the 5th annual Saveur food blog awards held in Vegas. It looks and sounds like an incredible trip, an incredible experience, and everything in between. Very cool!
And lots, and lots, and LOTS of coconuts. I cannot get enough tropical food. It’s so good Mmmm…..
Alright, the next set of photos is well, interesting and little blurry. We finally broke ground on the barn, or in my words we finally started working on the barn!! The waiting is over, and things are finally kicking into gear. I am so excited, only I need to kick my butt into gear, get my head out of photos and recipes and melted ice cream, and start thinking about paint colors, kitchen tables, marble or granite and so much more. I have so many ideas, but I need to actually organize them so they can all flow together. Someone please allow me to pause time so I can catch up, relax and basically get it all done. That would be awesome. Please and thank you.
So this is not even half of my family. We have from left to right Dad, Mom, Me, Kai, Blake (not actually related but for some reason he is always here… always) and little Red who somehow managed to actually look good and be in focus. My mom gave my camera to our architect and told him to start taking pictures. I was like “whoa, what did you just do?” I mean, I was freaked. That camera is my sidekick. Anyway, I didn’t have the settings set properly for him and the photos came out blurry, but to be honest, that’s just us. Not normal, totally awkward and pretty hillbillyish. It’s just us.
Missing from the photo is Creighton, Trevor, Brendan (who was up at the house, but could not move because he had just come home from surgery on both knees) and Asher. Not sure where the heck Asher was.
Oh but, here’s Asher! This is her “it’s the first day of summer” face!!
So let’s make cookie dough…
And eat it all, because it is summer and there are no rules when it is summer!!
I like the way she thinks.
title: “Chaos N Sprinkles " ShowToc: true date: “2024-11-08” author: “David Rider”
Sprinkles~ They’re coming soonish.
Chaos~ Somehow Asher and her friend got hold of Red’s guitar. Oh the loudness. Very cute, but for like a minute. Then the “music” starts to get to you. FYI, they had the Frozen song “Let it Go” down. Now if only they could be in tune… Also, notice the very white windows. Snow storm – nothing new.
Choas~ Video shooting. Wow, this is hard and time consuming…planing another soon!
Chas~ Video editing. Yeah, and I thought editing photos was hard. Video editing is a whole new world. Thank God for that kid. He’s a video filming + editing genius. Sprinkles~ This Burger. It looks amazing.
Choas~ Everything was looking so good…and then they weren’t. Meringue failure.
Sprinkles~ Herb planting!! My dad has me covered this year with herbs galore. He says he has this system down so that when one plant runs low, the next will be ready to go. So basically herbs all the time. He is the best, right? Yup. Sprinkles~ This Salad. So pretty, colorful and flavorful!
Sprinkles~ Red, Kai and all the other crazy kids killing it at The Launch this year.
Sprinkles~ I finally found some rhubarb. Yes!!! Made my first recipe the other day and oh my gosh, I cannot wait to share. Rhubarb is so good. Yeah for Spring! Sprinkles~ This cake. Just yum!
Chaos~ Friday morning this cute little guy jumped up on my chair and fell backwards. What happened after that I have no idea, but I am thinking I rolled over his leg and then he pulled it out-of-place. Yes, out-of-place. It was horrible and I felt terrible. That little cat has become my best bud and to see him in so much pain was the worst thing ever. Thankfully we took him to the vet and he going to be fine, but the poor guys is gimping around. It’s terrible and all my fault… Sprinkles + Major Chaos (because there is not enough time to get everything into one day)~ The BARN! Planning is coming along so well. I am at the point where appliances and things need to be planned. The rooms are all planned and the 3D model is going to be revealed to tomorrow, so I promise pictures of that soon. I am being told that I need to come up with a list of built-in kitchen appliances and right now all I have in my head is the basics. What else do I need?? Also, I have been pinning to my barn inspiration board like crazy. I am loving simple, rustic and white with pops of bright color. I love, love, love this space and her blog (gorgeous photos). Also, I am in love with this table.
Sprinkles~ After her guitar session, we both thought a doughnut snack was needed. Best idea of the week.
title: “Chaos N Sprinkles " ShowToc: true date: “2024-10-28” author: “Michael Harrison”
Sprinkles~ I never used to like sprinkles in any way. To be honest they sort of gross me out, mostly because it’s like eating pure sugar. BUT I have pretty much gotten over that and have had way too much fun taking photos of sprinkles. All the color excites me.
Sprinkles~ A BIG FAT THANK YOU to all you guys! I am beyond excited that I won the Reader’s Choice Award for the Better Homes and Gardens Best Blogger Awards. The readers vote is such a fun win and I still cannot believe it was me! Kind of crazy, so thank you guys!
Sprinkles~ Nikolai! Or really, my new best friend that keeps me company all day long. He sneaks water off the table. He sniffs around while I try to take photos… then I just end up taking photos of him because he is so cute. Eventually he gets tired of sniffing around my shoots and takes a nap in the sun right next to me. Looks pretty dang comfy, right? Secretly wishing I was a cat at those moment. Then the sun sets and we get in front of the computer. Well, I get in front of the computer, he goes straight to the floor and lies underneath my desk right next to the heat dish that also sits under my desk. Again, this is one of the times I am secretly wishing I was a cat. In the last few pictures above we played with sprinkles…Nikolai had no idea what was going on… and no real interest. He got bored after about three seconds and moved on to trying to gnaw my finger off with his shark like teeth. Nikolai also likes to hop up on my desk and literally lay over my keyboard so I can’t possibly do any work. Turning him away is almost impossible, so if I miss a post sometime, blame the cat.
Chaos~ My Brothers (sorry for the picture, but it’s hard to get us all together at the same time). Clearly they know how to have good time, right? It’s odd because all seven of us Gerards are NOTHING alike. All of us are so different from one another, my differences being the most distinct. I am a little boring and a little too focused, but I did love growing up with all brothers. It taught me a lot and I am definitely not afraid of getting my hands dirty. At heart I will always be a tomboy, but these days I prefer looking a little cuter. Oh, but I should mention that I fear the guy who will hopefully come into my life and stay…he’s got way too many guys to try to impress. Anyway, let’s meet the brothers from left to right. Malachi or Kai as he is also known, has the looks, the girls (yes, plural) and the life. No one can say anything bad about the kid because he is honestly the nicest. He’ll take Asher to the pool to go swimming, teach her how to snowboard, run to the store for me when I realize I need avocados… and need them NOW, and he gets along with pretty much anyone. He is a kind of awesome. He is a filmer and I actually bought my first camera off of him. I have since upgraded, but that Cannon 60D treated me well! And now he has some giant thing that I can barely pick up. How he manages to snowboard with it, and snowboard at extremely fasts speeds all while filming, is beyond me. But he does, and like I said, his videos are awesome. Oh and you can’t tell in this photo because it is kind of horrible, but Kai’s got the prettiest blue eyes you will ever see. Kid should have been a model. Brendan’s the creepy one. Like if you google him, you may be creeped out and people will look at him and think “bad boy”, but people actually say he is the nicest bad boy you will ever meet and it’s so true. Brendan’s the kid that looks at the good in everything. He eats ALL my food (veggies, fruits, purple things, heck he’d eat tofu if I made it for him). Brendan and Kai have smiles that light up rooms and he is also the most daring of us all. He has been since the day he was born and he has also been breaking bones since the day he was born. He can’t help it. He lives life to the fullest. He can almost always make me smile on a bad day. Oh, and if you take away all the creepy, he could totally be a model. Actually, now that I think of it, he has done some modeling for two of his snowboard sponsors…and a McDonald’s commercial. Red, the walking Burton add. No literally, if you check out the Burton website, Red and his mini awesome snowboard friends are all over it. To be honest, basically my whole family is a walking Burton add though. Free clothes = happy Gerards. It works. If you happen to know any Gerards, wherever they live, chances are they are wearing a piece of Burton clothing somewhere on them. That or Von Zipper sunglasses, both have supplied the Gerard clan with too much stuff. Ok, but Red? Not gonna lie, the new little teen gets on my nerves, but that’s what little brothers are for? He’s tiny, he kills it at snowboarding and has traveled to more places than I will probably ever see. Today he and Kai (who is 18, Reds 13) are off to Canada for another contest, but before that the two of them where over in Europe for the Burton European Open and they lived like rock stars. Heck those two are always living like rock stars these days. Also, Kai and Red have friends. Friends that are almost always here. In fact one of Red’s friend has been living with us for like over a month and Red has not even been here this last month. My parents take in all the friends, the strays, just about anyone. Creighton the oldest and the the wisest? Yes and no. He’s smart, super smart, but his nickname is also Dopey.. and the Crow (this one is rather recent). So weird. Creighton’s the one that loves food…just not my food. He is the “give me meat and only meat” kind of guy. SO annoying, especially since I am really not all that into red beef. Creighton has however brought on some good recipes. Shish Tawook, Cheeseburger French Fry Salad and Greek Gyros. He has been living in Cleveland, but next week he is making the move out to CO. YIKES. I better go buy some beef. Oh and Creigh is also the most protective of his siblings. If someone (outside of the family, sibling teasing is highly acceptable to him) bad mouths anyone related to him, he’s got your back. Extremely loyal. Trevor…the LA boy. The kid who gets on my nerves the most, but also the kid who I am probably most like. And yes, it does kill me to say that, but it’s true. We love our mom like no else, expensive things, clothes, and we both know how to get what we want. Ugh, that sounds horrible. I promise, it’s not as bad as it sounds, although I did use this skill of mine a lot back in middle school when I just really did not want to go to school.
Chaos + Sprinkles = Brendan. Well all of my brothers are insane in their own way, but Brendan takes the cake for most daring. I mean, where the heck is the landing in this shot? Is there a landing? How is he even alive to send this photo to me? Who the heck knows, but it’s pretty cool. Actually, it is probably one of my favorite shots of Bren. I love the waterfall and whatever kind of thing he is doing over the waterfall is pretty cool too.
Sprinkles~ I needed the beer cold for these Sundaes, so I stuck it in the freezer. Obviously, I am not a drinker because being the amateur that I am, I opened a semi-frozen beer and this happened. Turns out it made for some fun photo taking.
title: “Chaos N Sprinkles " ShowToc: true date: “2024-10-08” author: “Mary Harris”
Chaos because my life is so chaotic, all over the place… and loud (I could write post after post about all the chaos that takes place in this house). Sprinkles because I have found a new-found love of sprinkles. Just staring at them makes me happy. Instead of the usual recipe today, I have a little different post for you guys. It is not something I plan on doing all that often, since I really don’t have all that much interesting stuff to share, but this post has been a few weeks in the making. Just a little more about my life. Day to day stuff that you may or may not find interesting. We shall see.
Chaos~ The snow. I know winter has been pretty brutal in a lot of places this year, but I just have to say that in my seven years of living in Colorado, I have seen more snow this season than any other… and we’re only half way through. For the entire month of February it has snowed. I think we have seen the sun only a handful of days and they were all in the last five days. So before this last week it had been just straight snow. At first I really thought it was so pretty, but then it just got plain annoying – and cold. Especially annoying when I got my car stuck in the driveway, and since the number one guy in my life (talking about my dad) was out-of-town, it sat there, stuck, for an entire week. Lucky for me my dad has a rather large truck that he had lifted and all that stuff that guys do. The thing is a tank and it plowed right through the snow. I have to say though, it’s a little funny watching me drive that car. I already only look about sixteen, so just imagine me in this huge truck. Yeah, I get some interesting looks when I drive that car. BUT, I totally feel like a bad ass while diving it. Chaos~ Since there was so much snow, hiking my usual trail was kind of out of the question, so I went to the gym and ran. So not my thing.
Sprinkles~ This bowl. I get so many questions about this bowl and where I got it. The thing is, I actually just found this bowl in my younger brother’s room while looking for his phone charger. I never found the phone charger, but I did not come out empty-handed. I totally just stole this bowl right off his desk. At the time it had coins in it, but I had much better uses for it. The bowl is probably the poorest art class bowl you will ever see. While that may be kind of harsh, I think my brother was only in like seventh grade when he made it, but it still has finger indents all over it. I love its imperfections though, and it is my very favorite bowl to use in my photographs. Chaos~ The Barn. The barn is moving along a little slower than I would like, but it is moving. We are currently looking for contractors and all that fun stuff. The reason it is taking a little longer than I would like is because one, life is so busy and I barely have time to blink my eyes. Two, my parents have come up with the grand idea to build another barn. It’s a long story and if the second barn pans out, I can’t wait to share the news about it. It is a pretty cool idea!
Sprinkles~ Mom’s Orchids. Is that not just so pretty? I absolutely love flowers. There is nothing like fresh flowers on the kitchen table, especially during a white winter. My mom is a master orchids grower. She is honestly a pro at keeping them alive for years. Yes, YEARS!!. She had one for eight years that she left behind when we moved out to Colorado. This one above just came out of its dormant stage and is going on two years. AND we bought this orchid together…..in LA. So yeah, it spent a summer with me in LA and then traveled to Fort Collins, CO, spent a few days there and then back home to Frisco, Colorado (all done in a car) and it is still this pretty. Amazed. Sprinkles~ This blogger. This e-cookbook. So excited. Sprinkles~ Also, this new e-cookbook. 31- meals Cookbook. Dana is amazing.
Sprinkles~ Fun Towels. A Valentine’s Day gift from my grandma. Love them. Sprinkles~ New favorite blog. New favorite inspiration. She is amazing.
Sprinkles~ Malley’s Chocolate. Okay, A LOT of Malley’s Chocolate. See, my family (minus me) was back in Cleveland for a week two weeks ago and I made my mom stop and buy all this chocolate because nothing will ever be better than Malley’s Chocolate. If you live in Ohio and have not had Malley’s you need to get up, stop whatever you are doing and go get yourself some Malley’s. Oh, and they have a website and they ship nationwide, so if you do not live near Malley’s you need to click over and order some. Shipping isn’t cheap (hence the stocking up and flying it back to CO), but you gotta try it. Your life will be changed. Chaos~ My family went back to Cleveland. Why? Because after seven and a half years the home I grew up in (mostly) finally sold and they had to get the last of our stuff out. For the last seven years my family has rented out that Ohio house, hoping it would eventually sell. No one ever thought it would take YEARS, but thank God it finally sold. Chaos~Our new house in CO (love) has the worst stove. It is terrible, so we ordered a new one and it is beautiful. Only problem is that it is currently sitting in the middle of my kitchen. Yes, IN THE MIDDLE. Like right in the way. We need a gas line installed and it is taking forever. Thus the range right in the way of everything for over a week now (it weighs over 650 pound’s so it is not moving until it replaces the old stove). I am still not sure when it will be getting installed – still trying to find a more reasonable estimate than the first one we got – ouch!
Sprinkles~ I am in love with citrus. VOTE HERE Sprinkles~ Being nominated for the Better Home and Garden Blogger Awards! I am beyond excited about this and still cannot even believe they chose me to be include with so many other amazing bloggers. If you can head over and check it out! You can check out all the bloggers and vote here.
