A birthday

Today is Josh's birthday!

We celebrated with dinner tonight. On the menu:

1) Carnitas: started this morning when I seared the pork, cooked all day in the slow cooker, and finished by broiling on a cookie sheet for a few minutes to make them crispy.

2) Birthday cake, of course! For the third year in a row: Alton Brown's carrot cake.

The main party mishap occurred when I tried to put Wish's birthday hat on (remember last year?) and Wish shook it off his ears before tearing into the hallway to see Josh. (But he was wearing it upside down, like a feed bag, which was kind of funny in itself.)

I can't believe we started celebrating birthdays together a decade ago, and I can't wait to see what my dear, wonderful husband does in 2014 and beyond.

Marvelous Monday: Week 1

This morning I woke up and checked the weather on my phone, and the weather app reported -22 degrees with a -47 degree windchill.

We will focus on the marvelous!

1) I have a beloved and very warm button-up gray sweater that has been missing most of its buttons for at least a few months. I finally remembered to get new buttons for it last week at Joann, sewed the buttons on last night and got to wear the sweater buttoned up today. (Once I mend the pocket liners that were chewed through by a certain dog in pursuit of treats I had left in the pockets, it will be as good as new.)

2) Tonight is the college football national championship, and I'm rooting for Auburn to win. Every year since I chose Tennessee to be my SEC football team, I've learned a little more, and this year, I was surprised by how much information about other SEC teams (and college football in general) I took in by following UT football. Tennessee's win against South Carolina was my favorite college football game this year, but Auburn's amazing game against Alabama in the Iron Bowl is a close second. (And the Auburn radio call of the game-winning play is my favorite call of 2013.)

3) Given today's temperatures, I hit the treadmill today for a few intervals, alternating hard efforts with recovery segments as the songs changed on my iPod. It felt good to run harder than usual, and really good to be wearing normal running clothes instead of 600 layers.

4) My friend Sara got a dog and I'm so excited for her!!

5) I am very excited to try Iowa Girl Eats' Thai Peanut Chicken Quinoa recipe sometime this week.

What's new this week for you, Reader? Any cooking projects going on? Favorite recipe to cook on a cold day? And do you have a favorite cozy winter sweater? 

The fireplace

Josh and I currently have a nonfunctioning fireplace in our living room, and a functioning fireplace is definitely on our dream wishlist for a future home. We love the idea of a working fireplace on a cold day.

We're a step closer...

This week I made it a little more functional...

Okay. This has nothing to do with a functional fireplace. I made a fake fire out of paper - and I love it.

With a Young House Love project way in the back of my head as initial inspiration, I got up during a Friday Night Lights marathon on a particularly chilly day last weekend and started making wavy "flames" with my rotary cutter and some red, orange and yellow scrapbooking paper, then taped each arrangement onto the fireplace doors.

Later in the week, I looked over at the fireplace and had to laugh. It looks like our "fire's" "flames" had actually sent little reflections dancing across the floor.

It's totally goofy, but the "fire" 1) makes me happy whenever I see it and 2) truly makes the room feel a little more cozy. We may have also talked about it like it's a real fire. It's not a home project I ever expected to take on, but it's definitely providing a little extra warmth (yes!) this week.

A five-year project

Thanks to Lindsay for the heads-up about this one!

Sometime last year, I saw an idea for a Vintage Postcard Calendar Journal, which I'd like you to know that I re-found today for you by googling "date-stamped journal in fruit basket."  (I should have thrown in a question mark at the end of that search criteria for good measure.)

I thought it'd be a fun way to jot down a little note for each day and then be able to look back in future years to see exactly what you were doing on that date. I also thought it'd be a fun vehicle for #99 Keep a "My Day in Six Words" journal for three months in my 101 in 1,001 list. But I did not act! (I really do wish I would've started in time to record the months and days leading up to our wedding and then have visual reminders each year as I updated the cards.)

But then my friend Lindsay mentioned that she has a five-year journal that sounded like just what I wanted. She found it on Amazon and updates it daily and likes that it's small enough to carry with her when she travels. I was very excited and bought my own copy shortly afterward.

I got it in November or December but wanted to wait til January 1 to start it, then forgot on January 1 (sigh) and began writing in it yesterday.

Here it is!

That photo is kind of bad because it makes the book look large. It's 4x6x1 inches.

Here's the inside. There's a page for each date, then you write in the year in each section. There are a few lines for each day, which I think will be perfect and manageable for noting a few thoughts each evening.

I hope I can keep this going over the next five years. I think that would be wonderful! Do any of you have anything like this going? Tell me, please!

Happy new year!

On New Year's Eve, I told Josh (maybe more than once) how nice it would be if Wish could wear one of those cute HAPPY NEW YEAR tiaras.

We thought it was just not meant to be. Yesterday, we bundled up for a walk to get some fresh air, and lo and behold, I found a slightly crushed but otherwise perfect tiara that had been discarded on a neighborhood sidewalk!

My husband encouraged me to not take it home, but I did just that. Unfortunately, Wish didn't seem to share my enthusiasm.

It has been really cold in Minnesota lately, with what seems like a perpetual wind chill advisory over the last week. I'm grateful that a brief reprieve will bring warmer temperatures tomorrow and Saturday. I've gotten out for a few miles this week, but my mileage (so far) has been eclipsed by the number of Friday Night Lights episodes we've watched lately - and that is just fine.

Now I am braising meat for the first time. Braised beef with onion, sweet potato and parsnip is in the oven, and I am excited to see how it turns out.

Cheers to 2014!