Lemon Drop Love

I did it. I made pancakes from scratch. Little secret, it wasn’t nearly has hard as I thought it was going to be. I’ve made these many times and they have always been a huge hit, but I wanted to up the ante for a special Valentine’s Day treat. Thanks to Joy the Baker, I have a new go-to recipe, and to be honest, it will be hard for me to look back to my old “box” recipe. If you love to cook (or just like to eat), check out her fabulous blog and you can see the recipe I used here.

Look at me…cooking from scratch!

{Every year I buy these candy hearts, next year it would be nice if they made them taste better}

Everyone seems to have a strong opinion on what this holiday means. I’ve heard everything from: “It was created by the card/flower companies just to make money”, or “It’s a solid reminder that I’m single and the holiday is LAME”, “My boyfriend always forgets”, “I don’t even know why I need to get my girlfriend something” –and of course the– “We have been together for SO long, we just don’t celebrate it anymore.”

Well, here’s my opinion (hope you wanted it). I love Valentine’s Day. I believe this day is a time to slow down and celebrate LOVE. You can celebrate a love for life, you (of course), your girlfriend, boyfriend, friend or family member. It doesn’t mean you HAVE to get/give flowers, candies, jewelry, etc. Rather, it is time to reflect and focus on how you can best show your love and spend quality time. Since Brian and I celebrated Logan’s graduation day on Valentine’s Day, we will be celebrating our love this weekend. Our Valentine’s Day will look something like this: my pancakes in the morning, pajamas all day (maybe a nap), a walk outside and a dinner we make together, all paired with a few cocktails here and there.

This is what our love needs this year (some quite time).  If you’ve already celebrated or still need to (why skip this day, we all need it?), be sure you do exactly what you want, not what you think you should do!

Okay, okay way off topic…but the entire time I was writing this, I kept humming this song to myself (don’t ask).

{Logan sporting the Thunder Shirt}

{Graduation}

I am a dog lover…always have been. It is probably more accurate to say I am an animal lover. As a young girl, I always wanted to take animals home with me (cats, lizards, fish, turtles, puppies, mice, hamsters, you name it, I wanted to take care of it). I have owned many animals in my young life and one thing always rings true, you never know what you are going to get. Each pet is unique, with his or her own little quirks (just like us, I guess).

Why am I bringing this up? You may know of my goofy, exceptionally charming French bulldog, Logan. I have mentioned him on the blog here, here, here, here and here before (wow, that’s a lot). There’s one thing I’ve left out: his uncanny quirky behavior/issue that we can’t seem to get him over. His big deal/life-stressing quirk is a frustrating one. Logan gets himself worked up into a tizzy every time Brian or myself leave him alone (god, I wish he spoke English, I could just tell him, “No biggy buddy, we will always come back” or like my Pap used to tell me when I little and wanted to know how long something was going to take, “We will be back in two Cosby shows”).

Basically, he howls and cries as if the moment, right before we leave, is the last he will ever see either of us again. I adopted him when he was one and he is going on five in March. His separation anxiety has escalated into a more extreme state since we moved from Chicago to L.A. in August. This has been something I’ve constantly been working on: Currently, we are taking him to a dog class @ the ZoomRoom to build his confidence (he graduated last night), we tried the Thunder Shirt (which was a total bust, it seemed to push him over the edge) and now we are giving him Sleepy Time Tonic every time we leave.

He is loved, and I just want him to be happy; live a life without undeniable fear that we will never return. If you’ve ever experienced this with your dog, I would love to hear how you solved it.

p.s. Thank you for bearing with me on the abnormally long post (I needed to vent).

xx Jen

In my opinion, the epitome of simply delicious is the classic Rice Krispie Treat. They aren’t complicated to make and the ingredients are a perfect complement to one another. I have many memories making them as a child and they are just as fun and easy to eat at the age of 28. I found this recipe on the famous Cupcakes and Cashmere blog and discovered the amped up take on the original treat is from one of my favorite food bloggers, Smitten Kitchen. Basically, the butter is cooked a bit longer and you add a dash of salt, making the flavors that much better (did you think that was even possible?). I whipped up a batch on Super Bowl Sunday and surprisingly they are wierdly good with an ice cold beer.

I have wanted to give my blog a facelift for a very, very long time. Finally, thanks to my friend (she doesn’t have a site or I would share it), my dreams came true and Lemon Drop Love received the TLC I have been wishing for. I love it and I am completely giddy with the new design!

I still have a couple more tweaks up my sleeve, but those will pop slowly over the next few months.

Have a nice weekend!

p.s. Logan and Sophie wanted to say, “Hi!” They haven’t made an appearance in a while

xx Jen

{Happy Friday! Have a lovely weekend. xx Jen}

See original photo here

The long weekend was a true gift. Brian and I were able to do just enough exploring with ample relaxing time scheduled in. Our time off ended up being the perfect way to kick off a new year and exactly what we needed. To start, we spent our time celebrating with family at a perfectly decked-out New Year’s party, Brian gave me a present in the form of a little blue box (a beautiful everyday necklace), we took a short road trip to a wine tasting in Malibu, cooked my favorite breakfast sandwich (twice), slept in everyday, drank a lot of tea, cooked our first Mexican-spiced chicken (a pleasant departure from our usual beer-can chicken) and ended the weekend by going to our first Lakers game (they won, woohoo!).

Hope you had a Happy New Year! Here’s to a fabulous 2012! xx

Life just keeps getting in the way of blogging and I can’t seem to make things slow down. The days, weeks and months have truly been filled with one thing after another, with many ups and downs. I feel this New Year, more than ever, is symbolic to me. This is my/our fresh start to: make friends, cook dinners together, explore our (second) new neighborhood, read, do art projects (be creative), play with Logan and Sophie, sleep in on the weekends, go on dates, exercise, laugh (really hard), throw our first dinner party since being in CA, enjoy our backyard and spend time with family and new friends.

When I think back to when I was in high school, I didn’t envision that my life would be like this at the ripe age of 28. It is actually better. I have experienced a lot of things that I didn’t think I would by now, but I can wholeheartedly say that I don’t have any regrets. I’m so excited to settle in and finally make California home.

Cheers to a fabulous 2012!

I am late. Christmas has past, but I wanted to share all the beautiful Christmas trees that I saw over our whirlwind trip to Chicago this weekend. Some were small, others large, but all perfect and with their own story. Every year, Christmas is special no matter what. I realize that now. It used to be all about Santa, then it was all about the things I HAD to have, even more recent, the cookies and food I was going to eat, and now, this year, it was about family. Though Christmas wasn’t as blissful as it once was for me, all I know is that I am truly grateful to have my family. For those that we recently lost, they were missed more than words can express, but every year, no matter what, they will be in our hearts. Love the family you have and cherish every moment.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t really had the need to be prepared to be cocktail-ready on any given weekend or weekday for that matter. Yes, the occasional holiday party may have called for it, but mostly what I did on the weekends or any special occasion, I didn’t have a dress code. Now that I am in California and starting to feel settled-in at work, the need to be cocktail-ready is much more prevalent with my new position. I am completely embracing it and what girl doesn’t like to have an excuse to get dressed up every now and again? I think I could get used to this! A few weekends back, I had to attend a charity event in San Diego, so naturally Brian and I made a little vacation of it. It was so fun and San Diego was beautiful (I can’t believe it is only a short drive from L.A.), plus I had an excuse to stock up on my cocktail attire. Lucky me.