As I’m editing my pics from Paris, I find little moments that I loved, that I want to highlight for you.

I’ve made no secret of my love for chocolate.  I’m completely happy with a cheap old bag of Hershey’s kisses or a cup of Swiss Miss, but I’d heard that in Paris there was a place that served some seriously kick ass hot chocolate.  So off we went.

Angelina’s has a few locations throughout Paris — we went to the one on the Rue Rivoli because it was the closest to us.  I paid my Euros and got my greedy little hands on a cup of delectable, smooth, velvety liquid silk.

My husband isn’t a huge fan or chocolate, or hot chocolate, but even he was impressed by Angelina’s hot chocolate.

One of the things I purchased to bring home was a bag (the big size) of hot chocolate mix.  They sell the hot chocolate in bottles, ready to heat up, various pastries, and dry mix.  There is also a restaurant where you can have lunch, but it’s pretty pricey for what you get, and let’s face it, I was only there for the hot chocolate.

That picture brings me to another subject:  my hair.  Yes, that’s all mine in its un-tame-able curlage.  I brought a hair dryer, curling iron, frizz tamer, smoothing cream, hair spray, etc.  The only thing I used during my trip was a BB product thing from Pantene to deal with the frizzies.  I didn’t see a single woman sporting the ubiquitous “beachy waves” or straightened hair.  Parisian women have pretty, polished hair and pretty, polished makeup, but don’t look like they spent half an hour on either.  So I didn’t, either.

And yes, that’s an Avengers t-shirt I’m wearing.  Even though I’m Team Loki.

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I am grateful that this plague I’ve got held off until I could make sure that a huge change happened in my youngest’s schooling. If you want to know what else I am grateful for this month, check me out on Instagram.

Excuse me, I have to go cough up a lung now.

In late September we headed out to a nearby campground for our last camping adventure of the year. The newest member of our family came along with us.

Foxy was a delight to have with us, she is so mellow but at the same time loves to discover new places. And what a protective little lady she is! One night my youngest woke up wanting to go to the bathroom, so he and I left the tent, and immediately, our sweet girl woke up my husband to let him know we were gone! Steve had to comfort her until we came back because she was worried for us. She’s also let us know when someone she doesn’t know parks in front of our house. We love our Foxy girl!

As usual, we ate like kings and had help making our breakfast burritos:

I also received a gift from my in-laws. They know how badly I suffer when I get bitten by mosquitoes – they all seem to head for me whenever we camp and the bites end up swollen and inflamed, so they got me this awesome screen tent so I can be safe:

Isn’t that great? Now I don’t have to worry about mosquitoes and can camp knowing my skin will be protected.

Our neighbor B. came along with us this time, and we all had a great time. We hope that 2014 will bring us many more camping adventures with friends and family!!!

I will be on Instagram this week. And maybe next. My favorite season is here and I’m taking the time to enjoy it. Come visit me @casadeberry !!!

1 – Check out this adorable fall printable from The TomKat Studio – isn’t it sweet? And it’s free!

2 – I am so happy that Luca won on MasterChef!!! According to my husband, I didn’t like him at first, but now I think he’s just darling! I was rooting for him all the way.

3 – Must remember to not rest my face on the doggie. I was petting her and bent down to give her a little hug and now I sit here with the left side of my face covered in welts. Steve put meds on it and I took some Benadryl, but I tell ya, it’s taking all my willpower to not scratch off my skin.

4 – We’re making pretzels! They will be awesome with the grape jam Steve made.

5 – My dear friend J and I have been going over what crafts we are going to do together this fall. A few of them can be found here – we also like to make cookies for each holiday, and get our kiddos to decorate them. Good times!

Have a wonderful weekend!

We’re having a great time seeing friends and family in the Pacific Northwest. Check out casadeberry on Instagram for some snapshots of our adventures.

The main reason for us reworking the closet was my need for an area to hang my dresses and skirts. Since I only have the bottom level, my dresses and longer skirts would end up sweeping the floor, so Steve graciously agreed to move the storage unit so I could have more suitable space.

Thank goodness the closet is not the only storage option – we do have each our own dresser, which makes things a lot easier. In our old place, we each had our own closet, but when we moved here, we knew that we’d need more storage than just the closet.

The small top drawers hold jewelry bits that I don’t wear often and some hair accessories. The main drawer holds summer pants/crops:

The next drawer down holds my tanks and tees, and I store my gloves in the little box in the corner on the left:

The next drawer down has my undergarments and other delicates and the bottom drawer holds workout gear and swimsuits. Not too exciting but there it is.

Now onto the closet itself. Left side:

Behold the beauty of organized tops 😀

Right side – skirt and dress area:

Top of the white unit:

A small but significant change – Steve got some new pulls for the drawers:

The pulls are like these but in a 4-inch center-to-center width. They stick out less than the old pulls and look a lot nicer.

So that’s our new closet configuration – Steve moved the white storage unit to the right, leaving the left half for our shared space and leaving about 2 feet on the right for my skirts and dresses.

So far, so good 😀

I am incredibly happy with the results of my little Chopped-inspired experiment. On Friday I shared the plan – to use the following ingredients during the week: rolled oats, au gratin potatoes, Moroccan spice, Italian style bread crumbs, mango nectar, quinoa, tikka masala spice mix, and lentils. I’ll bold the challenge ingredients below:

Monday started with Baked Mac N Cheese from Chloe Coscarelli’s cookbook. My oldest, a mac ‘n cheese snob, ate the whole thing, so score one for mama. Dinner for the boys was chicken bites in a light coating of bread crumbs, and Moroccan spiced chicken with couscous for the grown ups. Win-win. I loved that the Moroccan spice mix was full of flavor, but only the tiniest hint of heat. Due to my GERD I cannot do hot spicy foods so this was something I could enjoy.

On Tuesday, I made a lentil and spinach dish, served over quinoa. Tuesday was the day that it hailed in our little neighborhood, so something comforting was needed. Yeah, we’re wimpy out here in California, but it was really cold.

Wednesday saw me trying a new cookie recipe – now, I am the worst baker ever, I can’t bake anything from scratch, but I used the recipe on the back of the Trader Joe’s Rolled Oats bag.

The kids had a couple of friends over and the only one who didn’t like the cookies was my youngest. The lumpy look of them put him off, but the three other kids loved the oatmeal, peanut butter, and chocolate chip cookies. So did my husband and I, and I used up all of the rolled oats. That evening I made chicken tikka masala and rice for my husband, and since the chicken was too spicy for me, I ate rice and the rest of the lentils from Tuesday dinner.

On Sunday, we had my son’s birthday party and made some mango margaritas using the mango nectar:

In the end, I couldn’t use the au gratin potatoes. It’s something we don’t really eat, I don’t even remember why I bought them, and every time I would try to make them I would just think “yuck” so I guess I failed my little challenge in that I did not use every ingredient. However, we ate some new meals and I had fun trying to use up my challenge items. This is definitely something I want to try again.

I’ll tell you all about my son’s Minecraft-themed party in a couple of days!

Valentine’s Day is less than a month away and although we don’t have huge plans for it, I still like to decorate our little mantel. Most of the items I found by going through our various decor bins and my only expense was 2 sheets of red cardstock that I used on the garland.

I found the little container on the left and it was the perfect size for my fake IKEA plant, but I didn’t love the designs on the front so I made a little “14” sign with glittery cardstock. Our house doesn’t get a lot of direct natural light but greenery brings such a sweet touch that I don’t mind that it is not real.

I used the two sheets of cardstock I purchased (2 for 1 at Michaels) and a leftover piece of polka dot paper to make a little garland.

On the right side of the mantel is yet another fake IKEA plant 😀 in a planter I covered with lovely sheet music paper, one of my favorite pictures of me and my oldest, and a great printable from A Geek in Glasses. I love the vintage look!!

I just love this photo, and here I was pregnant with my youngest so I love that it was our little secret at this point.

I love the whimsy of the polka dot paper!

I hope you have enjoyed taking a look at our Valentine’s Day mantel, I enjoyed putting it together – have a wonderful Monday!