October 1st is almost here...

...and that means it's almost time to start our photography challenge!  I've been going over the list trying to plan out and find inspiration for what I want to take pictures of each day (especially for the self-portrait...ugh!).

Clickin' Moms (surprise, surprise!) has a great post about taking self portraits, as does this post on A Beautiful Mess.

Can't wait to see what you've got!
xoxo

Tasty Thursday--Harvest Soup

I am lazy.  If you met me in a work environment, this would probably be really surprising since I'm the kind of person who likes to get things done, and quickly at that.  But in my real life, I'm quite the lazy bones.  I hate cleaning, dread running errands, and the thought of staying in and watching tv all day is my kind of heaven.

So, when I come across a recipe that I can make without too much work and S, I and E can all eat, I call that a win.  This recipe was adapted (minorly) from one I found in the latest issue of Parents Magazine.  Despite the fact that when I cooked it, it was a balmy 75 degrees yet (fall, where ARE you??), it was a perfect, easy dinner for the 3 of us.

Let's get cooking!  The ingredients:

-1 medium butternut squash
-2 apples
-1/2 cup each of carrots and celery
-1/3 cup onions
-2 apples
-32 oz. of the stock of your choice (the original recipe called for chicken, but we used veggie)
-olive oil

Start by chopping up the onions, carrots, and celery (aka mirepoix aka the holy trinity haha!). It doesn't matter how big you chop them since it all gets blended together in the end.

pretty colors!

In a soup pot, go twice around with your olive oil and let it start to heat up. Add in the chopped onions, carrots and celery. Let cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until they're soft.

Meanwhile, chop up the apples and squash. Again, size doesn't matter (that's what she said hahahaha I kill me!).

Add the apples, squash and veggie stock to your pot.

Stir a couple times just to mix things up and let it come to a boil. Once it boils, turn down the heat and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

This is when your kitchen will start to smell like Thanksgiving dinner. I think it was the combo of the celery and onions--which made me think of dressing--and squash, but seriously folks. So yummy!

After 20 minutes, your soup will look like this. Deliciousness ALMOST.

Toss in some black pepper to spice things up.  Then, using a blender, food processor, or immersion blender, blend up that bad boy to whatever consistency you wish. I left it a little bit thicker just for fun.

Add some croutons on top and enjoy!

I loved this soup, S loved it, and E loved it--success!

Will you be making this fall soup?
xoxo

Wordless Wednesday--Pppppffft!

well, E, tell us how you REALLY feel!

xoxo

Fighting My Way Through

I started Natural Light 101 yesterday through my fav photography website, Clickin' Moms.  I am seriously SO excited for this course since finding the light is something I struggle with all the time.  I don't use my flash and really prefer the look of natural light, so this class is perfect for me right now.

I think the thing I'm most nervous about is measuring up to the other photographers in the course.  I have some really talented ladies as classmates, so it can be a little intimidating!  Between that and having to use E as the most uncooperative little model in the world, I'm already having a hard time.

bad model!

I recently saw this quote by Ira Glass on a CM message board.  I think it sums up perfectly what I'm going through right now:

“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.

It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” 

...and fight my way through, I will.
xoxo

30 Day Photography Challenge

In honor of October being the unofficial month of photography, along with the tips I'm planning on sharing, I'll also be shooting a 30 Day Photography Challenge as found on Pinterest.

Source: whitepeachphoto.com via Merissa on Pinterest

Want to join in?  Get out your camera (dSLR, point and shoot, even your camera phone!), comment on this post, grab the button below and I'll link up each day!

<a href="http://www.gatorette.blogspot.com/" title="30 day challenge by staci.gator, on Flickr"><img alt="30 day challenge" height="200" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6176/6175543785_f9cb8c2a2e_m.jpg" width="200" /></a></form></div>

Will you be joining in on the photography challenge?

xoxo

Inspired by Pinterest

A mom board I'm part of decided to do a Pinterest Challenge, where you find something you've pinned that inspires you and try it out for yourself.  I decided to find a few photos on my Photography Inspiration board and try out some of the poses/techniques for myself.  Here's my take on it so far!

The inspiration image.

My image:

 

she's wearing my wedding shoes

Such a fun challenge!  I can't wait to try this out again!

Are you on Pinterest?  Follow me!

xoxo

Comments

I've been a busy little blogger this Saturday!  I just installed the IntenseDebate widget, which deleted all previous comments.  Figured it was no biggie since there haven't been that many posts or comments yet!  But, I read all that were here and pink-puff-heart-love them, so keep commenting!

xoxo

Saturday Morning

xoxo

Storybook Saturday--Snuggle Puppy

The Gatorette and I are big fans of Sandra Boynton.  Her books are hilarious!  We have a few that came in a boxed set (so fancy we are!), but E's favorite by far is Snuggle Puppy! (a love song).

This book is so cute!  The song that the mommy dog sings to the baby is adorable and gets stuck in my head.  E especially likes it if I am super dramatic and act out the song as I read it to her (I won't give any of it away...if you want to know, check out the book!).

Pssst...Zulily has great deals on books right now!

xoxo

my photography journey

I love taking pictures.  I'm from the city where George Eastman of Eastman Kodak fame lived and started the company.  A ton of my relatives worked for Kodak in its heyday.  Growing up, I loved getting to take snapshots using my parents' cameras.  As I got older, getting ready for school dances always meant picking up a disposable camera to take with you.

I've had a digital point and shoot for a while, but when I was pregnant I started thinking about getting a dSLR.  I knew that even if I used it as a point and shoot, the snaps I took would look so much better.  I figured it'd be fairly easy to figure out how to use it in manual, and managed to convince S that, in the long run, getting a dSLR would be cheaper for our family rather than hiring a professional photographer to take pictures of E every 6 months or so.  Yeah.  So that was before I got a dSLR and actually learned how to use it.  I'm quickly realizing photography is an expensive little hobby!

S got me a Sony a290 dSLR--a pretty basic, starter camera in the world of dSLRs--when E was born in January.  I was terrified to use it at first, and when I did, it was always in Auto mode and usually with the flash.  I attempted to decipher the crazy manual, and figured out that shooting in Aperture-priority would get the pretty blurry backgrounds the professionals always managed to get.  But, that was pretty much the end of my progress in terms of self-study.

I'm pretty much obsessed with being a student and love learning, so the obvious way for me to get more out of my camera was to start taking some courses.  But, we had a newborn at home so taking a class at a local college or basically anywhere but my living room was out of the question.  I had a couple of books, but they weren't cutting it.  I needed a teacher to push me and tell me what I was doing wrong and assignments to hold me accountable.

I started out with snagging a great deal I saw on Doodle Deals for a 10-week workshop called Photosanity.  The course was all online, and once I started it, I was hooked.  Based on the recommendation of the workshop instructor, I got my first "good" lens (aka stopped using the silly kit lens), a 50mm f/1.8.  When we wrapped up in June, I wanted more and stumbled onto Clickin' Moms.  I've taken Shooting 101, 201 and Lightroom 101, and am about to start Natural Light 101.  I have to say, I've learned more from CM than I ever thought possible!  Seriously, what great classes!

So that's my photography journey, so far.  I know that I am by no means a professional, but I do consider myself a pretty proficient hobbyist.  I'm declaring October to be Photography month around here, and am going to be sharing with you what I consider the best tips and tricks I've picked up over the last 9 months (most of which are super easy to implement and made such a dramatic improvement in my pictures)!

And, just for hilarity's sake and to prove my point, here's a picture taken back in January:

yikes!  the angle, the color.  what was i thinking?!

And a more recent one taken in August:

still by no means perfect, but come on.  much better.

See!  Improvement.  Now, if only I could convince S that I need that 30mm f/1.4....

Are you into photography?  What inspires you to improve?

xoxo

Tasty Thursday--Arugula, Artichoke, and Asparagus Pasta

The base of this meal is one of our go-to pasta dishes.  It's a simple white wine sauce with whatever veggies look good that week over whatever kind of pasta we're in the mood for.  I love it because it doesn't dirty many dishes, and the sauce soaks into the pasta making it especially good the next night for leftovers.

The ingredients:

I'm an imprecise cook and don't measure anything, so here's a list of what's in it: 

1 box of pasta of your choice (we went with penne)

white wine of your choice (it's always better to use a wine you would drink when you're cooking, but sadly, we didn't have any on-hand when I made this, so we used some cooking wine)

asparagus

arugula

1 can of artichokes

2 cloves of garlic (I decided to add this in after I took the above picture!  Doh!)
parmesan cheese

1 lemon

butter

Oh, and don't forget the cheerios.  What are those for, you ask?

To keep that silly baby of yours occupied while you cook, duuuuh!

First step--prep your ingredients.

 

Chop the asparagus and artichokes into bite-sized pieces.

Give the baby a bite of artichoke and laugh at her reaction to it.

Now to get cookin'.  Fill a big pot with water, add a little salt, and put over heat to boil.  When it comes to a boil, add your pasta and cook according to the directions on the box.

In a saute pan, add a little extra virgin olive oil to get things going and throw on your garlic.

Have you seen this before?  This stuff is the bomb diggity.  Frozen, chopped garlic that you pop out when you need some!  Genius!  I used 2 cubes, which is equivalent to 2 cloves.

sizzle.

Once you can smell the garlic and see it browning up, add the asparagus, a little butter and some black pepper.  Trust me on the butter.

Let the asparagus cook a bit, and then add the artichokes, cooking wine and lemon (in juice form!).  I ended up adding a little water, too, since I wanted more of a sauce rather than just sauteed veggies.  Don't add any salt--between the briney-ness of the artichokes and the parm cheese, this does NOT need any!

 Once the sauce has cooked down a bit, stir in the arugula.  You'll use the whole container, which looks like a lot but it wilts down and ends up being practically nothing.

 While the veggies are finishing up, shred the cheese.  Our cheese grater is broken, so I cut the cheese (snort) into cubes and then chopped it up in our food processer.  Totally stole this trick from Ina Garten, aka my food network hero.  Love her!

 Time to assemble!  Drain the pasta and throw it into a big bowl.  Add the veggie/sauce mixture, and put most of the cheese on top.  You'll want to save a little to put on top of the individual plates when you serve it, for some extra flair and yumminess.

Stir it all up, serve and top with a bit of cheese.

This deliciousness on a plate is so easy to change up based on the season, what veggies are looking good, and what you like.  Sometimes we add in grape tomatoes and skip the artichokes; sometimes we do spinach instead of the arugula.  It also makes a lot--like enough for S and I to eat for dinner and then have as leftovers for at least 2 nights after (we're lazy like that and tend to only plan 2 or 3 meals per week).  Yummmm!

xoxo

omG!

Adding another video to E's favorites.  I'm DYING laughing right now.

Just a small town G?  Just a city G?  How does Sesame Street know my favorite song?!

Watch here.

xoxo

Wordless Wednesday--If you give a baby a box...

...she'll forget about all of her other toys!

xoxo

Subway Etiquette?

E's a city baby, born and bred.  She prefers train rides to car rides, has already been to a Yankees game, and wears her "Made in Brooklyn" onesie with pride.

E's First Yankees game this summer

Brooklyn!

E first went on the subway at around 6 or 8 weeks old.  Some may say that's too young, but listen.  It was the middle of winter, I was on maternity leave and bored out of my mind most days, and needed to get out.  My friend (S!  Gosh there are lots of S's in our lives...) has a little boy (B) just a couple months older than E, so many of E's first train rides were to visit them in Manhattan.  E is so well-behaved on the train, always has been.  She rarely makes a peep, and when she does it's because she's flirting with the other riders.  And most of the time, the other riders laugh, play peek-a-boo, and make funny faces at her back.  But not the other day.

We were riding uptown to go to the Central Park Zoo with S and B (pretty lame-o zoo, btw...).  The train was fairly empty, but because I had E in our umbrella stroller, I wanted a seat for myself where I could easily have the stroller out of the way of the aisle.  This led to us sitting next to an older woman.  As soon as I sat down, I could feel her inch away from us, and I could tell that she was pissed we sat down next to her.  I probably would have been, too, since there were a lot of other seats available.  I didn't think it was a big deal and figured E would charm her with her gummy grins, we'd make nice and all would end well.  NOT.SO.MUCH.  At one point, I shifted in my seat and my foot accidentally brushed against hers.  In response, she huffed, puffed, sighed, rolled her eyes, got up forcefully (not touching me or E, thank goodness), and moved to an empty spot a few seats away.  Needless to say, we spent the rest of our ride trying not to make eye contact.  Now, I realize there are all sorts of people riding the NYC subways, but the way she was so outwardly annoyed and rude in front of me with my child really bothered me.

This got me thinking about how I would have responded had E been a couple years older, more aware, and more likely to mimic my behaviors.  I would like to think I'd talk to her about what happened after we left the train so as not to talk about the woman in front of her, and I'd also like to think that I would have remained calm and brushed it off like it was not a big deal.  But I also would want to convey to E that the woman's behavior was not ok, since I would be mortified if E acted like she did in public.

I don't know, I guess this is all one big ramble, but the whole situation is definitely making me think more about my actions and reminding me that everything I do and say, E soaks up.  Knowing that is scary and reminds me of what a huge responsibility being a parent is!

What would you do in our situation?  How would you talk to your child about what happened?

xoxo

Autumn

Fall is here!

My favorite part is wearing thick, cozy socks.

What do you love about fall?

xoxo

A Day at the Museum

We went to the Museum of Natural History with Auntie S today!  She was in town visiting a friend, and since she's a PhD from MIT, we had to do something smart with her.  Unfortunately, there weren't any Ben Stiller sightings, but we'll be on the lookout next visit!

I was skeptical of this choice of activity at first since I figured E was too young to appreciate any of the exhibits, but she really liked it (especially the dinosaur bones)!  I think she also liked the chance to hang out with Auntie S since she lives in Boston :)

ROAR!

Auntie S teaching E about an ancient turtle

E's paw isn't quite as big as this old dino's!

What would a trip to the museum be without a complete melt-down?!

Taken at the playground we went to after the museum...and posted just because I think it's cute!

Living in NYC means we have tons of cool museums to visit year-round.  We've already been to the Children's Museum of Manhattan which was so.much.fun and plan on asking for a membership to the Brooklyn Children's Museum for Christmas this year.

What indoor activities have you done with your baby?

xoxo

Storybook Saturday

Before staying at home with E, I worked as a teacher and then literacy coach in a k-8 school in Brooklyn.  I'm a self-professed book worm, and desperately want to pass that trait onto little E.  At my baby shower, guests were asked to each bring a book to help build up E's library and I have tons and tons of books I bought over the course of my teaching career, so needless to say she has a pretty impressive collection.  So far, she'll sit for a short book but mostly likes to gnaw on the covers.

Reading to kids, even babies, is SO important for their literacy development, and is one of the simplest thing a parent can do to encourage a love of reading.  So every Saturday, I'll be sharing a book from E's library.

Her current fave is Good Morning, Baby.  Girlfriend is OBSESSED with looking at the babies in this book!  She talks and laughs with them as she turns (yes, on her own!) the pages in this book--and this is the only book she does that for.  Seriously, as soon as I show her this book, she comes crawling over and is so excited to read it.  Highly recommended!

What are some of your baby's favorite books?

Pssst--have you signed up for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library or the Reading is Fundamental program at your local library?  Both programs give you FREE books for your baby! We got Good Morning, Baby through the RIF program for E.

1,2,3,4

It seems like at least once a week, E has an afternoon started by a too-short nap that quickly snowballs into super grump-a-lump baby.  For the days when I just.can't.take.it and need a break, I'll stand up up against the couch, plop the computer in front of her, and put on some videos.  She watches her videos on YouTube, which I love because I can control the content and length of time she watches.  If the videos are short, she'll pay attention and quietly watch for 10-15 min.  That can feel like heaven after chasing after her all day!

So, in no particular order, E's top favorite YouTube videos!

I remember watching Sharon, Lois and Brahm growing up and loving the song they always ended with, along with their dance moves.  This version is a little silly, but E is obsessed with the puppets so we'll keep watching!

My favorite part are the chickens just back from the shore!

I'd never heard of Tilly and the Wall before stumbling on this video, but E and I both LOVE this version of the ABC song.

E's favorite Beatle is George.

The little owl in this video is SO cute!  I'm trying to teach E hand motions to go with this song...not working, yet.

What are your favorite videos to watch with baby?

xoxo

8 Months Old

E is 8 months old today!

At 8 months, she can...

clap!


stand up on her own (and terrify me by doing it on the rocker!)


sit still for a nanosecond to show how much bigger than mr. monkey she is.



Currently loves "Hello, Goodbye", blowing raspberries, playing peekaboo on the swings, petting Matilda, getting into everything on the tv stand, and reading Good Morning Baby.
Currently hates seeing mommy or daddy leave the room, broccoli unless it's mixed in with something else, being told no, and laying on the changing table.

Happy 8 months, beautiful girl!
xoxo

TV and a baby

When I was pregnant, I didn't really have a viewpoint on E's tv watching.  I was always of the mindset that I wouldn't bash different parenting choices because I hadn't experienced it yet.  In those first few weeks and months, the tv was constantly on in our house.  It was winter, NYC had seen several blizzards, and I had a newborn who wanted to eat 24/7 and was not yet comfortable nursing in public, so I was basically home-bound.  I needed something to do during the day to keep me occupied after trolling Facebook got boring, so tv it was.  I found myself measuring my days in Food Network shows and laughing along with the women on The View.  But, as E got older, more alert and more aware (and less scrunched-up-old-man-newborn looking), I started noticing that if the tv was on, her eyes were glued to it.  So we stopped watching so much tv when she was awake, and eventually S and I pretty much stopped watching tv altogether.  It's gotten to the point where S and I have realized it's a lot more cost-effective to rent instant videos through Amazon Prime Instant and catch up on network shows the day after they air through the networks' websites.  Eventually we'll go back to cable, but for now, we're using the internet to watch our tv!

And don't worry, we're not too crazy about enforcing this zero-tv policy with E--she has a bunch of favorite YouTube videos she watches pretty much daily!  I'll be doing a separate post about that later.

E's new position of choice while watching her YouTube videos

Are you ready for some football??

E kicked off the NFL season by sporting gear for her 2 favorite teams.  Sadly, she's not a lucky charm for the Tony and The Dallas Cowboys, but it looks like she might be one for Tom and The Patriots!


clearly this was taken before the game...

cheering on the pats with daddy!

xoxo

Welcome!

Welcome to Gatorette and Me.  Here, I'll be writing out our day-to-day life with little E.  The name for this blog came from when I was pregnant.  S and I were super stealth and didn't want to share the name we planned on using for our little girl.  Basically we didn't want to hear anyone's thoughts on the name if they didn't like it.  So, BFF M dubbed the baby Gatorette, a play on our last name and S's nickname in college.

So, a little about me and the fam.  I'm currently staying at home with E, teaching part time at a local college, and slightly majorly obsessed with photography (don't even get me started on Clickin Moms for feeding into this obsession).  E's probably the cutest baby I've ever seen, about to turn 8 months old, and is the best thing to happen to our family.  And S (the hubs, also referred to as Tin) is my hubby and E's daddy.  It's been amazing seeing him take on this new role as daddy!  Oh, and we also have 2 cats, Harvey and Matilda.

xoxo