Recipe Friday- Honey Mustard Mini Meatloaves

I named this blog Little Bird Cottage: because a) i love cottage birds , b) people always tell me "you're so little", and c) Arden is our "little bird". hopefully she'll outgrow me. keep your fingers crossed, Arden.

Is everyone ready for some Honey Mustard Mini Meatloaves? this recipe is from the Every Day Food Magazine, but my friend "V" and i have each put our own spin on it. Every Day Food is by Martha Stewart, so when i make these meatloaves, i like to tell people i'm making a "Martha Stewart Meatloaf"--that get's the point across that this is NOT your grandma's meatloaf. no offense to all the grandmas out there! Check out the recipe below, it's easy to make and everyone will LOVE it.

Honey Mustard Mini Meatloaves

-1 pound ground chuck

-centur cut bacon

-2 tablespoons honey mustard

-2 tablespoons ketchup

-1 large egg, lightly beaten

-1/2 cup bread crumbs

-1 cup shredded cheddar

-2 tablespoons worstershier sauce

-coarse salt & ground pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees w/rack in the upper third. In a small bowl mix together honey mustard and ketchup to create a sauce.

In a medium bowl, combine egg, beef, bread crumbs, cheddar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Combine and fluff with a fork (not your hands). Form into 2-by-4 inch "mini" loaves. Coat loaves with mustard/ketchup sauce to desired thickness. Cut 1 slice of bacon in half, drape each pieces over loaves.

Bake 15-20 minutes.

Your take on Meatloaf will never be the same again!

Andrew and i took Arden swimming today at our gym's indoor pool. i'm really paranoid of taking her out in the sun since our planet has like, NO ozone layer. ;) i thought she would be tired after we got home, but she still wanted to play all day.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

TTYL,

Angela

"Mother's" Three Tiered Stand

Andrew and I are not really big on giving gifts to each other. i guess we OUTgrew that awhile ago and now use the "if you want it buy it" method. it works for me :) i was SURprised when he came home on mother's day with this 3 tiered stand which he said "arden told him" to buy me. all i asked for mother's day was to sleep IN, but this stand was great too. i was clueless on what to put in this until this past weekend when i finally threw in some ODDS and ENDS from my home accessories closet.

If you can't tell, those are gold dessert and serving utencils in a minaiture picture, some china saucers i picked up at the Market Days, some linen napkins and a small iron-stone bird. i would like to get some CUTER napkins, but that will have to go on my "to-do" list until after Arden's birthday. besides, i'm sure i will be changing this up periodically.

Speaking of Arden, that little baby is acting more grown up everyday!

Can you believe she's almost a 1 year old? sigh.....

TTYL,

Angela

A precious Slide Show!

For all my family and friends who stop by here, I posted this for you. My friend "V" took these pictures of Arden's Baptisim and created this wonderful slide show for us. Just click on the 'play' icon and a pop-window will start the slide show (you might have to disable your pop-up blocker). It's wonderful and there is sound too, so turn your speakers up!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Blooms in our "Young Garden"

Our Crepe Myrtles and other plants are in full bloom. hard to believe we just planted everything LAST year. it's so DRY where we live, i long for the moist climates of the west coast so that we could grow more lush flowers and blossoming vines. oh well, i love our garden none the less and i'm proud of what we've accomplished considering the conditions we have to work with. Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

TTYL,

Angela

"Re-Dux" is Done

I have FINALLY finished "the smallest bathroom known to man". i am EXhausted both mentally and physically. physically, bcs these projects always take more out of you than you planned on; no matter how "small" they may seem in your mind...mentally, bcs this thing was MONTHS if not YEARS in the making. if you know me well, then you know this little bathroom has been a decorating predicament for me since day ONE. i was never sure what colors to go with since this area is right in the middle of my house. i eventually settled on the blue bcs it's adjacent to arden's room which is robin egg's blue, and the black and white, since my kitchen has alot of black and white and is just a few yards away. it also helped that i fell in LOVE with this black chippy style botanical towel hanger below. i'm SO glad this project is OVER.

i didn't include the before photos bcs i didn't think it was necessary. just imagine a plain white, tiny, VERY boring bathroom and you won't need any "before" photos. i also had a hard time taking pics since this is afterall, "the smallest bathroom known to man", and therefor it was hard to move around in. it looks MUCH better in person than in these photos. anyway, i'm VERY pleased with the way everything turned turned out.

And that is all i have to say about this little room...EVER.

My grandparents came over this week and brought Andrew and I lunch. it was great to visit with them and they watched Arden while we took down the old light fixture in the bathroom. Thanks for coming over guys! We enjoyed seeing both of you and Arden had a blast!

TTYL,

Angela

Table of My Dreams

You wouldn't think that a little round rattan table could really make a person VERY HAPPY, but the fact is it CAN. this table is the "table of my dreams". i say that bcs i had INvisioned this table in my mind 10 million times before it actually came to be. i invisioned the roundness, the color....even the things i could display on it.

What i didn't INvision was it's little skinny legs or the WONderful fact that it would FOLD up for EASY storage so that i could infact, put my christmas tree up at the holiday time. although i may have easily sacrificed a christmas tree so that i could live with "the table of my dreams". but i guess that fact that now i don't have to forgo a christmas tree REALLY does make this the "table of my dreams".

I found "the table of my dreams" at ROSS of all places in the furniture department. it was also at the "price of my dreams"...which makes it EVEN better. :) if your just starting out in your 'home decorating quest', i highly suggest you head over to the home department of ROSS. if you keep your eyes peeled you will eventually find LOTS of home accessories for whatever your "motif" may be.

I'm currently reading A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle. Mr. Tolle talks alot about how material possesions are not really a part of our spirit but more apart of our EGO. i know he is right...but when it comes to buying stuff for my house my ego gets me everytime. that ego just loves shabby chic!

Here is a pic from Arden's baptisim this past weekend. what a wonderful day!

TTYL.

Angela

Shelf "Re-Dux"

Yes, i'm STILL working on "the smallest bathroom known to man", and i'm not ashamed to admit it. why? bcs i'm a mother to an almost toddler and bcs i have a COLD. or ALLERGIES or some other ANNOYing bug that has caused me to loose my voice and feel GROSS. some pest that has consumed my head and my throat and sometimes my arms and legs and made me feel hot and clamy and made me want to sit in a ball on the couch and quietly say, "i sick".

Don't feel too bad for me...i still have some hydrocodone cough syrup left over from when i had the flu in february. yes--i save prescription medicine; don't judge! besides, it's not even a year old--don't go and get all DR. OZ on me.

Anyway, in the midst of all this i STILL managed to paint a shelf for the "smallest bathroom known to man". this shelf was purchased at the Wimberly Market Days 3 years ago. it's been sage green...then white...now black. i think this new color suits it best. i could have sworn i heard it whisper a "thanks" when i was brushing Krylon's "Satin Black" on it...then again, it could have been the hyrdocodone talking...J/K. :0 don't worry that CORONA in the background of this before photo was not mine...it was andrew's. no, i wasn't painting and drinking and taking hydrocodone cough syrup--don't call Paint Protective Services on me.

Well, i think i may finish the bathroom this week and when i do i can't wait to post new photos. andrew "handiest guy on the planet" is installing a new light fixture today but i still need a few ODDs and ENDs to make the transformation complete. we'll see how it goes. i think this shelf will by far be the cutest piece in the "Re-Dux".

Love these pictures of Arden "Teensy" Choi Andrew took yesterday.....

TTYL,

Angela

What we've been up to....

I'm pretty much convinced that no one other than my family and friends read this blog, so this post will be 100% personal. but if for some reason i really do have one or two non-family and non-friend readers, than i promise my next post will be about decorating or cooking or gardening or wooing a man in the bedroom....just joking about that last one! :)

This has been an interesting week. we had to make our usual 2 week trip to austin which is always somewhat trying with a baby. i'm pretty much convinced that arden sensed a "ghost" at our other house in austin bcs she was petrified in a way i have NEVER seen her be before. my child, the "friendlier than friendly" baby who is always independent and loves new places, clung to me like a drunk fraternity boy in bar CLINGS to his draft beer. if i even ATTEMPTed to put her down she screamed the "UGLY scream" and threw herself at my feet. this confirms my suspicions that the austin house is in fact HAUNTED.

I won't go into any logistics as to why i have ALWAYS thought that house has a "spirit", but i've always heard that children can sense these types of things, and arden's strange behavior convinced me that there is definetly someone or something CREEPing around that house. and just so i don't tick any ghosts or boogey men off, i will say that i'm sure this "spirit" is a NICE one :) like casper or angelica houston. i do however wish that friendly "spirit" would have been NICE enough to get LOST while arden and i were there bcs spending the ENTIRE afternoon holding a 19 pound bebe gave me stiff neck and shoulders.

Moving on, arden was suffering from some type of allergy or maybe a minor cold this week. she had a RUNNY nose for 2 days. well, really it was a runny nostril....one nostril that NEVER stopped dripping...blaaaahhhh! i love my kid, but sometimes motherhood is gross. i think she also had a slight fever, but nothing serious enough to see the doctor for. if you've ever had a baby, than you know that when they are not feeling well or have a fever they cope with this by whining....CONSTANTLY. oh, and when i say "baby", i'm referring to an actual infant and NOT a man--bcs those guys are prone to constant whining when they are under the weather also. i guess it really STINKS to be a kid and be sick. adults can put ourselves in a tylenol pm COMA but kids are pretty much forced to tough it out. which means parents are pretty much forced to tough it out too :(

And this is what leads me to the next "occurence" that made this such an interesting week. last night, amidst all the crying....and whining...and whimpering that was coming from my child, i was attempting to make a tofu dish from my EVERYDAY FOOD magazine. i enlisted the help of andrew bcs he is MUCH more experienced with tofu than i am. i was also making a fried rice dish which i unintentionally ALMOST burned to a CRISP bcs i was so distracted with arden and all of her crying...and whining...and whimpering. andrew finished the tofu while i attended to arden, but when it was time to dine that little scoundrel refused to eat my fried rice (i'm referring to andrew as the scoundrel). he said it was too burned, that it would taste "smokey". i kept telling him, "just try it, it's really not that burned...I PROMISE". finally he said, "it's CHARRED! can't you tell? look how smokey it smells in here!"

And that was when i realized that it was not only smokey SMELLING, the room was starting to LOOK a little smokey as well. well, DUH? i ran over to the stove and found that the burner had been left on, and a plastic spatula was literally cooking on the griddle. my favorite RED spatula was turning into liquid right before my eyes. in the midst of all the crying...and whining...and whimpering that was coming from our little "OFF-SPRING" andrew had forgotten to turn the burner off. we burned our dinner, but we also could have burned our stove up!

All i have to say about this is, THANK GOD IT WASN'T ME who left the burner on. and i will really miss that RED spatula. :(

And the next time arden is not feeling well, we are ordering a pizza.

TTYL,
Angela

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Mother's Day. Whether you are celebrating with your children or relaxing in your garden, enjoy all that you do today!

I had a lovely lunch with my family yesterday to celebrate an "early" Mother's Day with my Grandmother. I'm so annoyed with myself for not taking any photos! :( But it is very hard to eat lunch and visit with 6 adults when you have a baby sitting on your lap, much less to take pictures. Oh well, it was a great visit anyway. I know Arden enjoyed seeing her great-grandparents and her aunts and uncle! If anyone from my family is reading this, then you should know that today I really did stay in bed until noon like I said I would. And it was the best day of my life since Arden was born. :)

TTYL,

Angela

"Ivies" on Robertson & Rooster Replacement

My favorite restaurant ever is 'The Ivy' on Robertson, in L.A. it's not my favorite bcs of the celebrities that dine there, or bcs it's on super-chic robertson blvd., it's my favorite bcs it combines my two favorite things: fabulous food and shabby chic design. Woohoo--i get excited just thinking about it! it just so happens that my favorite restaurant also happens to be named after my favorite plant. i have ALWAYs been in LOVE with english ivy and all of it's various hybrids.

So you can imagine how THRILLed i was when i was shopping at Lowes a few weeks ago and i ran across several Ivy hybrids on CLEARANCE. most of you probably already know, but if you don't then i will tell you: ivies are EXPENSIVE. it's a pretty penny for plant that you really don't know for sure will make it. especially for a girl like me who SOMETIMES has a green thumb...but SOMETIMES has a black one also.

Anyway, i was pleased as punch to buy these two "dark pittsburg" hybrids for $5.00 each--that's more that 50% off!!! after a brief search, i finally found these urns yesterday at HOBBY LOBBY, (also known as the GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH), and thought they would be perfect for my darling ivies. then when we were planting them, andrew and i realized that the ivies were so big, they needed to be seperated, and i ended up having 4 plants rather than 2. FOUR ivies for $10!!! i practically have ivies growing out of my ears now--what a dream come true! :O i decided to take one to the surprise birthday party we were invited to tonight, as a gift for the party's host. i hope the person that gets this little beauty below loves it as much as i do.....bcs one time i gave someone a topiary ivy and they let it die--a slow and thirsty death...and i still get upset when i think about it. :( i'm telling you, i'm obsessed with these guys...i may need ivy intervention.

On another note, i have a blue resin garden rooster that i keep on my front porch. he usually has a plant in him, but for some reason the poor guy spent most of the winter and spring EMPTY. he wasn't lonely though, bcs he was often used as a "mailbox" of sorts for myself and my girlfriends. i would leave "things" in the rooster for my girlfriends to pick UP when i wasn't home: a meat mallet....a calender...directions...magazines. and my girlfriends would leave stuff for me too: tupperware...cards...money (that one was my favorite). i would just say, "leave it in the rooster", and they would. in the words of my friend 'V', "thank god for that rooster". well, the rooster finally had a fern planted in his belly and our "mailbox" was GONE. when people started complaining that out little "mailbox" was no more, i knew i had to find something to replace it. i like this new "mailbox", don't you? from now on i will say, "leave it in my basket". so go ahead and drop something in my basket--let me know you still love me ;)

Last night arden shook her little rear at me when i told her it was time to go to bed:

But she woke up this morning with a SMILE:

TTYL,

Angela

"Sprucing Up"

This corner of my kitchen counters needed some SERIOUS "sprucing". technically i keep my baby bottles and feeding supplies here, and it is really just a WORKspace. but nothing is going to DIScourage this interior decorator extraordinaire from making the baby bottle counter aesthetically pleasant! ;0

I had this vintage mirror sitting around in my hall closet. i bought this years ago when i had the IDEA to make my bedroom "vintage". i didn't realize at the time that what i meant was "shabby CHIC", or that this idea would filter from one bedroom and take over an ENtire house.

I think the proper name for the frame on this mirror is called "milk glass". i looped some RIBBON i had in my arts and crafts box around the mirror's hanger and then stuck a nail in the wall close to my cabinets.

I opted to NOT to have a tile backsplash when we built this house a few years ago. let's just say this was NOT a popular decision with Andrew, but i knew that with tile above my counters i could NEVER hang plates or shabby signs, or anything at all--and that would be a real home building DISaster! after hanging this mirror, i am SO glad i made that decision! now this little "workspace" has been transformed into an EYEcatching corner. the mirror adds light to what USED to be a dark and boring nook.

Today Arden is: just being a SWEET ANGEL.

TTYL,

Angela