a little peek in to our thanksgiving weekend!

hi peaches! how was everyone's weekend? for those of you in america i hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving and at LEAST gained 10lbs! hehe, i know i did! it was glorious and so so worth it!

tom is the one on the left and i'm on the right.

tom and i left wednesday night the moment i got off work and headed straight to kelly-anne's house and clementine is always soo happy to see us. she made us block portraits...i think they look pretty accurate, no? hehe

and then uncle tom gave her a ride around the living room. it makes my heart melt when i see them play together. tom is gonna make one fantastic dad!

the next day we all got fancied up and headed over to tom's side of the family where we hung out for a bit and caught up with family. we then headed back to kelly's so we could eat what we like to call "thanksbacon". we made it up last year, it came from a conversation kelly & i were having and every dish had to have bacon in it and we had so much fun last year with it that we did pretty much the same thing this year! the turkey wore a nice warm woven sweater of bacon which kept it super juicy.

 kelly-anne makes the BEST water chestnut wrapped bacon appetizers....they didn't last long...

 i was in charge of the veggies this year and the pumpkin pie :D i was so excited when tom came home with a stalk of brussel sprouts!

with thanksbacons comes champagne...those two pretty much go hand in hand.... if they ever make bacon flavored champagne my life may be complete.

i really out did myself this year...literally, moments after stuffing myself, i feel asleep on toms shoulder for a good 10 minutes...that tryptophan really did a number on me!

we were all pretty much slugs for the rest of the night but we all managed to eat pie somehow...i am not sure were it went but i put it in my mouth and it was good.

 the rest of the weekend was spent eating, being awesomely lazy and hanging out with the little nuggets.bowie loved helping me scroll on the ipad. i couldn't complain because he is so darn cute and just really the happiest little man.

we had a really great weekend and still more to come!
xo,
cb

pump up for spring!

 happy wednesday! so good to be home and to sleep in our own bed! i am waiting for the film to develop so here is a bike chick tip for your wednesday morning!

everyone is aware that spring is here which means bike riding! SCORE! which also means that those of you who are not year round riders are digging out your long lost friends. your friend will most likely need a bit of a tune up in order to run at its best and the first and most obvious fix is the tires! rubber is porous so over time if sitting will leave your tires flat. this doesn't mean that you need to change the tube, which if you do you i did a post on that here. most likely you just need a bit of air in your tire!


bike chic tip# 14: pump up for spring!

first and for most what does a full tire look compared to a flat? well most of time you can notice a flat tire but it isn't always noticeable if you need more air. a full time should look like this when you pinch it:

and a flat time or any tire that needs air will look something like this:

if you can pinch your tire easily then  most likely it needs air!

bike pumps are so so helpful! and a floor pump is the best! they are easy to use and instead of dragging your bike down to the shop you can just pump up your tires at the convenience of your own home! we don't have a bike shop in walking distance so it is necessary for us to have one at home. tire pressure will range from the type of tire you have but you can find that # on your bike most likely in raised font on the tire. it can be really hard to see and taking a picture doesn't help as you can't see it. what my tire on mary says is inflate to 100psi, what does that mean you ask? well....psi stands for pounds per square inch. thats just a mesurement for the air pressure in the tire.

first off i would pump up your tire and let it sit for a day. if the next day it is flat most likely you have a leak which is an easy repair you can do yourself...here is how! most pumps will fit shrader and presta valve tubes.

insert

flip

pump

just insert the pump piece on the tire nozzle and flip the switch over...you should hear some air let out and then you can start pumping away! just watch the dial so that you aren't putting to much air in the tire. most of the time you will notice as it will start to get hard to pump.

i don't always pump up my tire all the way as i don't like my tire to be that hard. sometimes pumping up the tire to full compacity can make for a rougher ride but the tires will glide better on the pavement which makes you fly down the street :D


i will be back tomorrow with a our ny trip!

xo,
cb

the sweet smell

aahh november is really one of my favorites months because it celebrates two wonderful things....the mister's birthday..SO GLAD he was born!!! and THANKSGIVING!!! this is my all time favorite holiday...EVER!!! so over the weekend i made a pumpkin pie! now i didn't make the crust, i cheated and the mister got me pre-maid crust BUT i did use a real pumpkin instead of that canned stuff! it added an extra step but really it was super easy and i think made a WORLD of a difference...i don't want to toot my own horn as i didn't invent the recipe but whoever did is my HERO but this pie was soooooo amazingly yummy! i have one more pie crust and pumpkin and i will be making this again for sure...also going to make it for thanksgiving to share with my family! i know my little sugar monster of a niece will love it ;D

the first step was to get all the seeds and pumpkin guts out and then cut it up into pieces. you have several ways of cooking the pumpkin, either microwave (yuuk, don't know one and NEVER will again,) bake (which takes 45 min to an hour) OR steam for 20 min....hmmmm i'll take the later. so i threw all the pieces in a pot and steamed for 20 mins. waited till the little pieces of hot lava cooled and then scooped out all the yummy flesh, tossed in a blender and blended till it was all smooth and even. easy peesy lemon squeezy!

right before it went into the oven

the extra piece of wonderfulness that this recipe added was a walnut, sugar & cinnamon topping which you also blend...this goes on top of the pie and give it an extra crunch that i OH SO LOVED! i found the recipe on epicurious....which you can find here....this website is my go to for finding all things yummy.

half through you take the pie out and add the walnut topping

and here is the wonderfulness that came out and filled our tummies with pumpkin sugary goodness!

hope you make the recipe and enjoy it as much as we did!!

have a great weekend! the mister is off to las vegas for his first time! i can't wait to hear what he thinks when he gets back and i have a bike expo to attend to and round up some potential venders!!!!


xoxoxo,
cb