He's proven to be not only extremely proficient, but also absolutely adorable at it. Double whammy. I think I'll keep him on.
In all sincerity, he's actually kind of helpful and I find myself sometimes *gasp* waiting until after naptime to cook. Just so he can help me. Once you've cooked with Frazier- I'm just not sure there's any going back. All culinary ventures thereafter seem markedly tedious and dull.
We did a lot of cooking together on Friday (hence all the pictures)- and he was a real trooper- "sous chef-ing" through two different kinds of muffins and a king cake (which we waited and iced the next morning).
The two-handed icing technique:
He's also handy in the taste-testing department. :) Love this little chef.
Bon Appetit!
Frazier and I made valentines a couple of weeks ago. He was very excited about using glitter. He got the process of glue then glitter then shaking off the excess...right down to closing the glitter after each use before he shook the paper!
I found the perfect Valentine for Frazier this year. I actually saw it in a magazine when- I kid you not- he was an infant. And I knew I had to get one. For Frazier, of course. I ordered it back when I ordered some other things for his birthday back in July to save on shipping and it's been in my gift closet for 7 months! It's from my favorite line of toys, 
I had just enough of that cute valentine's day wrapping paper to wrap it (I bought part of a roll of it at a Goodwill a couple of years ago for a quarter and had been saving it for a special Valentine's Day gift). (Oh- and those beautiful flowers are from my sweet Dad...because he's awesome like that.)
How cute are these chocolates?! They were a big hit...Frazier likes stuff like that. 
Shape sorting and things you can take apart and put back together, I mean- not so much the fake food part. That's my fetish. :)
We also made a great batch of Frazier's first playdough...in pink for Valentine's Day (and because red is next to impossible to achieve). I love the smell of homemade playdough.
And this was Frazier's Valentine to me. While I was unloading the dishwasher this morning, he climbed on the desk, got the glitter off the shelf above it...and glittered my sofa. Super surreptitiously. Fortunately he skipped the glue step. That's what I get for letting the kid use glitter ONE TIME.
Despite the snowy weather, the sun still came out and the snow was so pretty in it's light. It looked like the yard had been covered with white glitter. See? Close up of snow:
These days I feel like I could be snapping pictures every couple of minutes and not capture all the amusing things Frazier does. I love it. Never. A. Dull. Moment.
Frazier (and his rice cake) stuck between the mattress and the foot board of our bed. Not the last time that happened, I'm afraid.
Talking to Grammie:
Frazier put on his own boots yesterday! He came out of his room with them on (the wrong feet). And then he slept in them. :)
Where's Frazier?
There he is!
And after!
Not only did I paint the walls, but also painted the cabinets white, replaced the hardware on them with new glass knobs... 
...that matched the glass hangers I got (on sale at Target) for the new shower curtain (which came from Bed Bath and Beyond) 
I hung some cute little metal shelves courtesy of a Goodwill under the marbled window I made ages ago, repainted and antiqued some frames from another thrift store and framed in them some pages from an old hymnal, and I got new towels in a pretty citrus-y green (from Big Lots) that perfectly matched my new shower curtain.
I had to add a little length of chain since the one this light fixture came with was too short for my tall dining room ceiling, but that was no big deal. I'm still in search of some bobeches for it, but I like it as is well enough.
...and after with the new!
Since I was all in painting mode, and since I've always wished there was something below that chair rail in the dining room...I painted it too! I taped it off and did white stripes with a white wash between them and finished the whole thing with a wood stain. I also got a new little cabinet that you can sort of see in the corner of the top picture. I'd originally bought it (at Ross Dress For Less) to go in the foyer but decided to use something else in there so it got moved in here and has cookbooks and tablecloths in it. 
I changed the hardware on it to a glass drawer pull and glass knob. I also took EVERYTHING off those white shelves and rearranged them and got rid of things I don't use and bought a couple of new things for them...but probably no one would notice that but me. :)
2/3 of one was more than enough to paint this one wall of my master bath (Martha Stewart- Rainwater):
(Also got some new his and hers hooks from Hobby Lobby-1/2 off-for the closet doors in there.)
It took 2 and a half of the sample containers to paint the two walls in my kitchen I painted, but even buying three of them was cheaper than buying one quart. So there's an idea for painting on the cheap as long as you aren't painting a whole lot. 
And here it is now...
I made a new hanger for my aprons out of a piece of wood and some great little colored glass knobs from Hobby Lobby. Unfortunately, with the aprons hanging on them you can't really see the knobs. I also finally found a place to hang this little white spice rack I'd found at a thrift store a long time ago. It fits perfectly on the end of this cabinet under my strawberry sign and is the perfect spot for some of my little souvenirs and stuff. 
I made the curtain for my laundry room door by sewing together some of my favorite tea towels and this random strawberry cafe curtain I thrifted a long time ago for 25 cents. It's been in my extra fabric box forever waiting for an application. This worked out great because it was just the right width and already had a seam for the curtain rod so that was one less thing I had to sew! I just loosely basted the tea towels to it so I can easily use them as towels again if I ever want to and I finished the bottom (since there were a few inches left between the last towel and the floor) with some of my favorite kitchen-y fabric scraps.
I think one of my favorite kitchen projects was the refrigerator. It came with the house and while all the other appliances were black...it was white. Which made it my least favorite appliance and incidentally, just about the only one we haven't had to replace since we moved in. I covered it with chalkboard contact paper. So it's not only black, but you can write on it too! Super easy change...and very cheap, too. The stuff is $6 a roll and this took far less than two rolls. The best part? If I want it white again...I just peel it off.
The breakfast room/office (that area at the end of the kitchen with the bay windows) is now an office/playroom. That was actually a project of mine back in the late summer-early fall.
It used to look something like this:
The light fixture and rug in there came from Ikea.
New Chestnut proved to be a much warmer, cozier cocoa color just as we'd hoped.
I also replaced all the throw pillows.
And here's the foyer wall we accented with the Martha Stewart Dried Chamomile (same color as the light fixture in the dining room, the kleenex holder in the bathroom and the background of those two big framed pieces hanging above my couch...I also gave the metal gate above my mantel a dry brush of this color).
The new foyer table I found at T J Maxx:
Here's the other accent wall in the little hallway outside our bedroom. Same color- Dried Camomile...might be my new favorite color.
And just because I came across this little shelf at a thrift store and it was only $2 and it looked just right for books...I bought it, painted it white, and hung it under one of the trees in Frazier's room. Made an adorable little reading nook, no?! It was like it was meant to go there. 
I also got some pretty new tassle tie-backs for the curtains in our bedroom. The old ones were too flimsy and never held the curtains back so I felt like it always looked messy. This is a significant improvement. I repurposed the others and they are now jointly holding back a curtain on a window on the opposing wall.
