Paso The Pup

To say that I had been wanting to get a golden retriever puppy for a while, would definitely be an understatement! When I shared the news on my Instagram that we brought our little Paso girl home, I had so many questions from my readers: where we got her, what the process of bringing her looked like, what her name meant, etc. She is now six months old, and I continue to receive questions about her, so I figured it was time for a blog post about her! 

Once we had finally gotten settled in our new home last year, we started looking into dog breeders in the area (Northern California). We were referred a long list of about 15 breeders to contact. It felt a little excessive to reach out to that many breeders, but we were determined to find the right fit. After a few weeks of outreach, we weren't getting anywhere with it. Until one day, when my next door neighbor text me that she knew of a local breeder in the Bay Area (only a mile away from us) that had just had a litter of puppies. I immediately contacted the breeder and to my surprise not all of the puppies were spoken for yet! 

There were only 2 girls and 1 boy in the litter. Going into it, I wanted a girl and my husband wanted a boy (go figure!). Once we spent some time with the pups, the littlest girl stood out to us. She was independent, sweet and incredibly cute. After seeing the larger size of her brother, we made the joint decision that a smaller sized girl was the right fit for us. The breeder was amazing, and let us come visit her as much as we wanted until we were able to take her home. Since she is a smaller breeder and the litter was so small, the whole process was a very intimate experience for us. Everything about it just felt right. 

Before we brought her home, we had already decided on a name for her. One night when my sister was over, we were brainstorming puppy names. I threw out the name "Paso" and my husband, sister and I looked at each other and said, "that's it!". It was an easy decision since the city, Paso Robles, has a lot of meaning to us. My family owns a vineyard in the Paso Robles area so it's somewhere I spent a lot of time as a little girl. When my husband and I were dating, it quickly became our happy place and ultimately where we ended up getting married. So, we named her Paso. Paso the pup. And boy does she fit her name!

If you are currently thinking of adding a pup to your family, or currently in the process of finding a breeder, I am more than happy to connect you to our breeder. The next litter she is planning on is in Spring of 2018. Since the breeder does not have a website, and runs her business via word of mouth, feel free to message me on my Instagram or leave your email address in the comments below and I will follow up. 

So, there you have it! Hopefully this post is helpful in answering some of the common questions I get about her, and if nothing else, hopefully you enjoyed seeing some puppy pictures. Paso is now 6 months old, and it's hard to imagine our life without her in it! She is definitely a part of our family :)

DIY Holiday Gift: Cinnamon & Sugar Spiced Nuts

With the final countdown to Christmas in full effect, I wanted to share a very simple yet delicious and thoughtful gift idea. Last year one of my friends gifted us with a jar of homemade cinnamon and sugar spiced nuts and they were amazing! So amazing that I had to ask her for the recipe and make them this year to give as gifts. This recipe is not only incredibly easy, but it makes a ton and it also keeps for weeks. Both the recipe and the sources for the packaging are below :) 

The key to this recipe is to make sure to whip the egg whites until they form stiff peaks before folding in the cinnamon and sugar. While they are baking, I found that stirring them every 15 minutes really helps to coat the mixture on the nuts and also prevents it from sticking to the pan. 

Once the nut mixture has completely cooled from being in the oven, you can either store them in an air tight container until you're ready to gift them or package them up right away. I placed the cinnamon and sugar nuts in some tall jars and tied them with my favorite velvet ribbon. I also had some simple labels made to put on the front of them. I kept the packaging pretty simple since I was making a lot of these for gifts, but you could get as creative as you'd like with these! 

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Cinnamon & Sugar Spiced Nuts Recipe

Ingredients:

• 5 cups pecan halves, unsalted
• 1 cup whole almonds, unsalted
• 2 egg whites
• 2 Tablespoons water
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300F degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and spray with non-stick spray; or use a silicone baking mat. Set aside.
2. Mix pecans and almonds in a large bowl. Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and water on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form, about 4-5 minutes. Add the sugar, cinnamon, and salt, gently folding until combined.
4. Pour/spoon sugar mixture over nuts and stir to coat completely. Spread nuts over the baking sheets and bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15. Allow to cool completely and enjoy. Store nuts at room temperature for a few weeks, covered.

*This recipe comes from this original source. 

Valentine's Day DIY: Oreo Pops

Valentine's Day has become one of my favorite holidays not because it involves lots of chocolate, flowers and cards. But because it is a reminder to hug your loved ones a little tighter and tell them you love them. Over the years, my husband and I have established a tradition of celebrating the holiday by making a home cooked meal at home. Sometimes we host others, sometimes it's just the two of us. But it is about the simplicity of coming together as a reminder of what's important. To keep things simple this year, I made these incredibly easy Oreo pops from items I already had in the pantry. I can't wait to surprise my Valentine with them! 

My husband happens to love Oreos, but Oreos dipped in white chocolate? It takes them to a whole new level in minutes! Start out by separating the Oreos in half, trying your best to get the frosting on one side (I had a few failed attempts!). 

Next, take your favorite chocolate candy melts (I chose white chocolate) and melt them in the microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. Just make sure to use a heat proof bowl that is deep enough to dunk the cookie pops into. You could also use a chocolate melting pot. 

Take your favorite lollipop sticks and put a dollop of the melted chocolate on the end to bond the two sides of the cookie together. 

Let the cookies rest on a wire rack to setup. This step is important, otherwise you're going to have cookies falling apart when you go to dunk them in the chocolate (I learned this the hard way). You can also place them in the freezer for a few minutes to speed up the process. 

Now for the fun part! Dunk your cookies into the melted chocolate until fully coated on all sides.

To decorate them, place your favorite sprinkles on a plate to evenly coat both sides of the Oreo pop. You can also keep them in mini bowls to dip half of the cookie. It's fun to create all different patterns and designs!

I also bought some additional icing to glue some of the larger sprinkles directly on the Oreo instead of dipping it in the chocolate. 

The decorating possibilities are endless when it comes to these Oreo pops! Once you have finished decorating them, place them on a piece of wax paper for 20-30 minutes to setup. Then they are ready to eat or package up to give as gifts :)

However you choose to celebrate Valentine's Day, I hope you remind your loved ones just how loved they are! 

Supplies You Will Need:

• 1 bag of Chocolate candy melts 
• 1 package of Oreo cookies (double stuffed work the best)
• Lollipop sticks 
• Sprinkles 

A Personalized DIY Gift: Pancake Breakfast For Two

There is nothing that brings me more joy than giving a thoughtful and personalized gift. I have some very special friends that I wanted to send a thank you gift to, and one of their favorite things to do as a couple is to prepare and eat pancakes together on a lazy Sunday morning. To express my appreciation to them, I put together a pancake breakfast box with my favorite chocolate chip pancake recipe, all of the dry ingredients, syrup and my favorite kitchen supplies to share with them.

One of the things I most admire about this couple is that they work so hard during the year giving up all their weekends as wedding designers and planners, so when they do get a rare weekend off, it is all the more special to them.

I chose to brand the gift box in the colors that the couple love which include taupes, white and gray. I wrapped the glass syrup bottle in a linen pouch and the other items in white and kraft tissue paper. I brought out my ribbon collection and added velvet and silk ribbons to add texture. 

To give this gift a personal touch, I had one of my colleague's design a recipe card that I printed on white card stock (recipe below) and put in a kraft envelope inside the box. Additionally, she hand lettered calligraphy onto the kraft jar labels in white ink and gray ink onto a thank you card. This really made the gift come together. 

Once I had sourced all of the items, I added all of the dry ingredients to one of the glass jars (recipe below) and the mini chocolate chips to the other jar. I then wrapped all of the items individually with tissue paper and ribbons since I had to mail this gift. If you were going to give it to someone in person, you could wrap it in a cute mixing bowl, gift basket or gift box. 

Having a lazy Sunday is hard to come by for this couple, but I hope this gift inspires some R&R and made them feel as appreciated as they are. Whatever the occasion is that you are looking to give a personal gift, it's as simple as finding what the recipient truly loves, and allowing that to take shape into a gift. 

Chocolate Chip Pancake Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 /14 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
• Butter, for cooking

Directions 

In a small saucepan, combine the butter and milk. Place over low heat just until warm and the butter is melted. Let cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with a fork. Whisk in the milk mixture. Add the dry ingredients (included in jar) and mix just until barely blended. Add the chocolate chips (included in jar) and mix.

Heat butter on a griddle over medium heat and ladle 3 tablespoons of batter for each pancake onto the hot surface. Cook until bubbly on the top and golden brown on the bottom. Serve and enjoy! 

Sources for Gift Items

• Weck Jars 
• Glass bottle of syrup 
• Kitchen towel, syrup pitcher, 
• Kraft round labels

A Personalized DIY Gift: For Him

For my husband's Birthday this year, I wanted to make something personal for him. He is an extremely creative person and gift giver, and the type who "has everything", so it can be hard to come up with a gift idea for him year after year. 

Every night before we go to bed, my husband asks me to give him a "happy place" to think about so he can fall asleep. For his Birthday gift this year, I decided to put together a book of all of his happy places for him and left room to continually add more places to it. Everyone has happy places that their mind goes to when every day life gets tough and they need a mental escape. This is a fun personalized way to document it.

What you'll need:

1. Leather photo book
2. Printed photos ( I printed all 8x10 photos)
3. Package of photo corners (4 corners per photo)
4. Scissors
5. Double sided tape

I started by laying out the photos in the order I wanted them to appear in the book. For each page, I applied 2 pieces of double sided tape and 1 self adhesive photo corner to each corner of the photo (4 per photo). 

I repeated the process for all of the photos, and I left quite a few pages blank towards the end of the book to add more memories to. I typed up a note on the last page, to added another happy place as his additional Birthday gift. He loves sports, so it involves going to see his favorite team play :) This was such a fun way to surprise him! 

One of my favorite parts of giving a gift is pulling together fun wrapping supplies and cards. This year I ordered wrapping paper and a card from Sugar Paper in kraft and white. I used ribbon from my ribbon collection and pulled out similar colors to add texture to the packages. 

It was so fun to greet my husband after work with this pile of gifts waiting for him to open and celebrate!

There is nothing like seeing the recipients face light up when they open your gift! I hope this post gives you some inspiration for the next time you need a gift for that person who has it all. 

Happy Mother's Day, Mom: Lending a Hand

My Mom is the type of person who is always willing to lend a hand. That phrase is also so symbolic of my best memories with my Mom. She has always lent me a hand. Whether she was teaching me how to throw a ball, how to tie my shoes, holding my hand as we crossed the street, teaching me how to bake, sew or knit. When she handed me off to Tyler on our wedding day with my Dad as they walked me down the isle. Those are the memories.

This year my Mom taught me a new lesson. She came to visit me for my Birthday and taught me how to make a quilt. A quilt is a complete labor of love, with countless hours using your hands to feed the fabric through the machine. We took turns, laughed a long the way at our mistakes, and we ended up with a beautiful hand sewed quilt that we gifted to close friends for their wedding (quilt tutorial to follow).  

Today, on Mother’s Day and every day, I am reminded of how grateful I am for my Mom and all of the lessons she has taught me and continues to teach me simply by lending me a hand!