The Cozy Home Trail of Destruction

She found the cookbooks. And the straws.

Developmental Fun: Shaving Cream Sensory Bag!

Easy and 15 minutes of baby fun: shaving cream in a zipper bag! 

Baby Cozy poked the concoction gingerly at first, then picked it up and started squishing (building those little hand muscles), got a close inspection at her handiwork, and then beat it to death with those chubby little fists...

Simple fun while mamma did the dishes! 

Cozy Fiesta: Cinco De Mayo 2013

 Our feast was simple and delicious, a fun family lunch with mariachi music playing in the background, spring breezes carrying delicious smells outside and two little girls having a blast with maracas ;)

Cinco De Mayo Menu

 Beef Tacos with Toppings

Mexican Rice

Bean & Corn Salsa

Key Lime Pie

Target had some great fiesta decorations in the dollar aisle, I picked up the taco holders, Mexican-style bunting, plastic "Fiesta" tray & red bowls there!

My treasure find in these photos, however, was the length of 1950's linen printed with a cheery, traditional Mexican print. I originally purchased the linen on Etsy years ago to cover this album of photos from a family trip to Mexico.

Lucky for me, there was enough left over for a table runner!

I found these fans and the remaining tray at Party City, which also looked festive propped on the table! (and loved at $1.99 apiece)

 The lemon & sunflower floral arrangement was fun to make and lasted a few days, I'll post a tutorial this week!

This bean & corn salsa is from a recipe Miss Cozy had made earlier in the week at a kids' cooking class she attended. She was so proud to chop up the veggies with her little plastic knife & see how much her family enjoyed it!

I'll post the recipes for the salsa and semi-homemade Key Lime Pie below later this week as well. If you're planning on making this gorgeous, cool dessert, make sure you have Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Juice on hand!

Wishing you a Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Cinco de Mayo Fiesta!

We've had a weekend of celebrations at Cozy Home Chronicles, come back tomorrow for peek at our Cinco De Mayo lunch!

Beautiful Days: Spring Stroll with Baby

On days like these, it's hard to imagine anything more beautiful...

 Than strolling though the neighborhood sidewalks...

 Blue skies overhead...

 Pastel blossoms on every tree...

 And a curious little lovey dove that wants to pet ALL the flowers...

 Happy, Happy Spring Days.

Developmental Fun: Shallow Water Tray

One of the things I find most exciting about being a mom is watching my girls' minds unfold, I feel so honored to be their first teacher! Today's sensory play was simple (and beloved by my water baby): shallow water tray!

 Baby Cozy already loves water in the bath and sink, so the excitement of WATER itself is always popular, but by adding her favorite toys, she played longer and did more than splash. She watched the water drip from the toys when she held them up...

 She rested her little pudgy hand on the surface and gave gentle taps to watch it ripple... (ooh that little hand!)

And her jammies changed from cozy and dry to SOAKING -- she gave her legs little smacks and it made some silly music :)

Matching Mondays: Pink Blossom Seersucker

 Both of these outfits were purchased last year on sale in advance of this year -- I loved them so much, I had to have them two years in a row!

Baby Cozy's seersucker madras one piece & bonnet came from Janie and Jack and looked adorable with her light tan and curls in Puerto Rico. Pieces still available here on Ebay!

And for Miss Cozy, my all-time favorite warm weather play clothes ever ... also from Janie and Jack (available here).

I'll have to post a close-up on the embroidered strawberries, they are beautiful!  Matched with pink seersucker shorts and crisp accessories, she looks neat & pretty!

Thanks for joining us for Matching Mondays!

Pretty Organization: My Cath Kidston Recipe Binder

I've looked at it for years and finally gave in when I saw just a few were left on amazon...and it was totally worth the wait, pretty kitchen fun :)

I re-filed all my loose-leaf recipes in this gorgeous new (new? sort of...) Cath Kidston binder, and I love how all the dividers have the classic prints that are hard to track down these days.

  Gorgeous? Yes. My kitchen thinks so :)

 I bought these binder sleeves to file the recipes in and kept the divider folders empty to conserve space.

 A new, prettier home for my printed out recipes...

love!

Happiness Is...

...a big, baby blue basket of fresh fruit cushioned by Cath Kidston's red & white spots!

Happy 20th Anniversary Cath Kidston, I thee adore...

Boston in Lockdown: Kenmore Square

The entire city is sitting inside, waiting...it has to be terrifying.  

I think back to my days living off Kenmore Square, a basement apartment all to myself on Bay State Road as a Boston University graduate student, this would have been my neighborhood today. Empty.
My curtains wouldhave been drawn with the news on!

photo from the Daily Mail

First Holy Communion Invitations

The Communion invitations have been sent (vendor sample of the style I chose above)... the dress has arrived... next, the alterations & cake!

Simple Icing Technique for Doll Cake

 As I mentioned in my previous post, Little Miss Cozy had just one wish for her family birthday party: a RED doll cake.  As a surprise, I looped the cake into a fair theme, adding a straw hat, gingham ribbon & cotton candy (rolled paper cone & cotton ball :)

Here's a simple technique to use when icing a doll cake, I used this pan to start (great instructions inside):

Next, I whipped up some buttercream icing, and added Wilton's "No-taste" red food coloring. This hue unfortunately took most of the small pot, but didn't water down the icing:

I loaded the icing into a disposable piping bag and used this Wilton icing tip, #31:

I layered each "flower" staggering the layers to fill in gaps:

A close up:

Fill skirt and get creative with the top; I made a sweetheart neckline!

It happily not only didn't taste red, but also didn't send Miss Cozy and cousin Mr. P into red dye hysterics!!