Puremotif » domestication

chloe grace

Rachel — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:14:45 +0000

Our beautiful daughter Chloe Grace was born March 9, 2010, weighing 8lbs 2.5 oz and 21 inches long at 11:18am. We are totally taken with her. Life has completely turned upside down for this little one! It’s amazing and hard all at the same time!

So bear with me if I don’t get back to inquiries right away or respond to your emails and calls. I promise to try to stay as caught up as possible Here’s a bunch more pictures too.

what i eat when i actually have time to cook…

Rachel — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 19:22:03 +0000

One of the advantages to being off on Mondays (which isn’t always possible, but I try my hardest) is getting able to actually use and cook and chop and eat all the healthy food I buy at the beginning of the month. Today I wanted to make myself a healthy stir fry. It’s super simple, but unbelievably tasty. You can use whatever amount of the ingredients you want, or add or take away anything.

The basic ingredients to rachel’s summer stir-fry are:

Assorted bell peppers

Fresh pineapple chunks (this is important)

Zucchini/squash

A few slices of onion

A few piece of asparagus

Chopped fresh chicken, cooked before the veggies are added

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (about a tablespoon or so)

Rosemary/Thyme to taste

Start the chicken first obviously, and then after it’s about halfway cooked, you can add the rest. The best part? It’s a starch free meal – the only carbs come from the veggies/pineapple. It filled me up. Sort of. I have to admit, I still had a twix bar afterwards. I’m terrible about my sweets.

In other news, this weekend was good. Fast as usual. Sunday service was good – and Brian and I got some really nice quality time together. MetaCafe was fun, you need to come! Also, I got a ton of cleaning, purging and organizing and figuring out things that have just been put off due to busyness. Tax stuff, business account stuff, stacks and stacks of junk mail, coupon cutting, client file disorganization….I don’t know how I let things get out so of hand. I mean, I feel that I am an organized person, but things build up so fast. I still have a small pile on my desk I need to deal with. But I can’t get to it quite yet.

Today was one of those days where you do things you have to do – go to the dentist, run to walmart to pick up supplies you’re low on and end up spending way more than you want, heading to petsmart to get food for the cats – unable to resist walking to the adoption section and having to leave in tears because you want to take all these beautiful, loving pets home and give them a home…. etc. Don’t you all have days like that?

I’m going to Bella Designs (that website will be redone within the month, I promise) now to take pictures of dresses for a celebrity/ebay auction that will be happening soon, then home for a bit, then to Chris’s with Danielle to make a major dent in the new Grace website reprogram/redesign. I’m actually excited about it!

This post got rambly. Sorry. Where is life going? It flies and flies and flies and flies.

snow & graham and other random thoughts

Rachel — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:01:26 +0000

Randomness:

I did one of the stupidest things of my life yesterday. Let’s just say I wasn’t paying enough attention, so I did some damage to my car on the brick building at work. I think it’s going to be very… very expensive. The redeeming quality? My incredible, understanding, comforting, and non-judgemental or condemning husband. He could have, within full rights, reacted badly – but instead he was incredible. Sometimes his unbelievable heart-after-God shines through and I am blessed.
Molly & Abraham’s wonderful arrival.
Today my dad is coming over and we are going to finally work on our backyard. It’s very muddy back there right now but I hope that doesn’t stop us.
Erie City Schools start back on Monday. I’m praying about peace, calmness and less anger when I start seeing our privacy violated again for the next 9 months.
I need to go into work at EO this weekend to try to get some stuff accomplished without clients calling every 5 minutes and people adding new requests to my plate while I’m still trying to fix other stuff. Friday was one of the worst days of the summer as far as requests, responsibilities, etc.. I handled things ok, didn’t freak out too much. I just asked for help and it got a little better.
I woke up majorly early again this morning. During the work week it’s all I can do to get out of bed, but on Saturdays – 6:30 am on the dot, and I canNOT get back to sleep.
We had an amazing small group last night. I love our small group. We are so ever-adaptable, welcoming new faces in, growing deeper together, sending people off to missions work and bringing in new couples. It’s awesome! Then we watched some Olympics together which is always fun

Modern girl blogged about this company called Snow & Graham. Normally I hate repeating things that all the other designy blogs are sharing, but this stuff is so beautiful, I just had to put it out there. I don’t know that at this point in my life I have use for much of it, but maybe someone would. At the very least, the prints, colors, designs are very inspiring. And the flash website is perfect. Beautiful!

turbo slim day 8

Rachel — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:27:08 +0000

Today was day 8, and I didn’t have a chance to post, so I’ll just give it in past tense. I did ok with my eating, although I fudged what I ate for dinner – I just didn’t want any more meat, and I had to stop at my parents to take care of the cats, and all I could think about was the grape nuts and fresh strawberries they had – so that’s what I ate. Not too bad, very healthy, just not what was recommended. I also had the morning snack for my afternoon snack so had no protein smoothy which was sort of a bummer.

Today’s Meals

Breakfast: Egg White and Tomato Omelet (although I actually had multigrain waffle with cottage cheese and fruit)

Snack: 20 almonds (had later with some dried cranberries)

Lunch: Salmon and arugula/romaine salad with light italian (Instead Meghan and I went to Marketplace grill and I had an amazing salad with grilled chicken, light italian, and some parmasan cheese & croutons – I know – i’m bad)

Snack: Strawberry protein smoothie

Dinner: Baked or Broiled Chicken Breast with, frozen peas and carrots (ooooor grape nuts with fresh strawberries and a bit of sugar)

Workout: Cardio Party (I did Cardio Party Remix – 30 min + some weights)

So… how am I? I am really stressed at the agency – things are kind of crazy for me. It’s a good problem, but we keep getting new projects!!! I barely have time to quote them all and get it together, plus work on existing projects that are dragging on.

Physically, I was down another pound and a half this morning which was great. Today, the lower back is a bit achy, but I’m planning on asking for a massage from the hubby. There was so much to do when I got home, so that was a bit overwhelming, and it’s done now (dishes, laundry, cat feedings, litter, etc., blech).

happy memorial day!

Rachel — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:47:57 +0000

Zelda enjoyed the beautiful sunshine yesterday. She’s taken to a new spot lodged between a window and the armoire. I think she likes it because Tycho is pretty unable to get to her there, and she has the wonderful sunshine warming her. She cozies up in there.

And here are my two favorite photos/things from Niagara-On-The-Lake. Rest of the pics will come sometime this week! The tulips were unreal. So straight, so colorful, so organized. People were all over stopping to take pictures of them. This picture in particular exposed my butt to the entire street, but it was worth it

This was my favorite chair at the cottage. I never actually sat in it… but it was just, so beautiful, antique, perfect.

Plans are food at my parents tonight, and I plan on making an amazing fruit salad. Also we have an “Ultimate Chocolate Cake” from Wegmans. What are you up to?

color week: white

Rachel — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:22:35 +0000

The next 3 photos were helped by Danielle both in inspiration and editing. Click on them to go to flickr for more details

Last night I made this Rachael Ray 30 minute meal, except with chicken instead of pork chops. I am proud to say it really did only take me about 35 minutes. Well, in prep. That doesn’t count the 20 minutes I spent going to Quality Markets only to find they didn’t have any of the fresh green ingredients (rosemary, thyme, argula, etc) and then driving back up Peach Street and wandering Wegmans for another 38 minutes looking for said ingredients, FINALLY finding them! That is my biggest point of wanting to give up on cooking, is not having the fresh ingredients and just feeling overwhelmed and like it’s all a waste of time. I do have to say though, it was AMAZING! And I think worth it, especially when my husband says, wow, this is REALLY good.
My appetite has been through the roof the last few days. It needs to stop.
Still very excited about our Niagara Trip.
Also you can see some pictures I took of Amy’s beautiful finished cupcakes here! I seriously think she has a secret talent and should open a little cupcake shop!

color week: purple

Rachel — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:45:28 +0000

All week I’ll be posting 2-3 pictures a day that are different colors… I’ve just been so visually stunned with all the colors of the season. Unfortunately it’s cold and rainy today and hasn’t been real warm for a few days.

As far as me, here’s been my weekend

mother’s day was wonderful – especially seeing my grandmother at our little get together. I think it’s the first time she’s been at my mom’s house since she was diagnosed with cancer.
My sister made some beaaaaauuutiful cupcakes. She’ll be posting about those later.
Danielle/Dave, Brian and I planned our Niagara cottage getaway (leaving on Sunday) and it made me SO SO SO EXCITED!!
My dad and I built my little shed this weekend. It was a bit tricky, but so worth it. I am just overjoyed having all the CLUTTER gone from our teensy-weensy backyard. It is refreshing.
Talked to Michelle. I love you girl. I’m telling you, you can and you will.
EDIT: This is a shout-out to KRISTIN who is finishing her last paper, projects and finals for her MASTERS degree TODAY by midnight! You can do it and I am so proud of you!

Have a great Monday everyone.

economic stimulus check and a VOX AC30

Rachel — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:16:49 +0000

With the country receiving their economic stimulus, it’s interesting for me to learn what people plan to do with theirs. Are they putting it right back into the economy? Paying off federal debt (loans, bills, etc.)? Giving to charity? Well, this is where half of mine is going. A small 6′ x 3′ shed for our tiny backyard. This is an item that I’ve needed for two years but my hubby has been resistant to spending our household money on, because the outside of the house is sort of my domain – he just doesn’t really concern himself with it. We made a decision that we could each do with our check what we wanted. Some of mine will go on my student loan, and the rest spent on this shed and potentially a small used (cheap) lawnmower.

Interesting and Flashy? Not really.

Necessary? Very.

Brian is using his plus some to add a bunch of cool pedals to his new birthday present, a VOX AC30 Amp, purchased by my family and a friend for him in a SCREAMING good deal. Don’t worry, we’d never ever be able to spend the full retail price on this. When I say screaming deal, I mean 1/4 price. This amp is a beautiful, prized thing for guitarists of his style/genre, and I am so thrilled for him to have his first amp ever! Here are some pictures from when we surprised him with it!

So, where is your economic stimulus check going?

Tune in next week, I plan on doing a color week – one new spring picture of a different color everyday.

the most beautiful settee ever

Rachel — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:25:26 +0000

I was looking through my most recent Pottery Barn catalog, sort of disappointed as I’m not really into the whole nautical/coastal beachy theme, and the first half of the catalog was themed around that. Some of I thought was downright hoakie, like this console and this bedding. But that is personal preference. However, near the back of the catalog I tunred to this piece and almost had a heart attack.

Isn’t it so beautiful? I would love to have something like in a master bedroom! I just think it is awesome. Maybe one day my home will have more Pottery Barn stuff… for now I’ll have to be content with IKEA

spring, yes i’m jumping on the bandwagon

Rachel — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:04:34 +0000

I finally got out to do a bit of photography yesterday at the ever-changing, ever-blooming, ever-colorful little Erie, PA sphere of a world I live in. It is just incredible how QUICKLY things are moving through their blooming/growing cycles. It was like, 2 weeks ago, nothing except a few crocus, then all of a sudden, leaves, trees, flowers, tulips, azaleas, cherry trees, pear trees…. one day I will own at least 2-3 flowering trees. I have my baby Kwanzan cherry tree replacement that came from Burgess yesterday, and I Plan to pot it again. This will be the third attempt and replacement from them. As a side-note, as tempting as their catalog is, I don’t recommend Burgess seed company. 75% of what they’ve sent me has died, and it’s not the case with plants I’ve bought from other sources. Anyway without further ado…

Things making me happy around Erie

Things making me happy around my house

and things making me happy inside my house (and I think the cats too)…. sunlight.

Have a great weekend everyone.