A Day Off

Sometimes little things can be the most frustrating to deal with. I have multiple choice philosophy for such days: A) When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. B) When the going gets tough, the tough eat something delicious. C) Both of the above. Yup, today was a choice C kind of day, so I took the boy out for lunch at our favorite California Mexican place (Rubio's) where we devoured fish tacos with smoky chipotle sauce (me) and overstuffed bean burritos loaded with cheese (Jade). Next, we headed to Hobby Lobby's big sale to hunt for home decor. Take a look at our finds!

Since white vinyl decals are hard to come by, I decided some soft colors that play well with the pale blue  would look good. In addition to adding some whimsy to the space, these afford a couple more choices for towel colors.

Here's the artwork I picked up for the guest bath wall. I have been torn between something with muted, romantic colors and something with a more graphic quality. This just seems tailor made for the space from its dark brown tree, to its bright white background and lone touch of blue. (And who could resist a bird in a tree?)

Next, these sconces caught my eye. I fancied they looked like stylized bird cages,
and so I just had to bring them home, too.

My final purchase of the day came in the floral department. I've spent the last two weeks looking for something to put in these aged vases that used to live on the fireplace. (Once the new coat of white when on, their creamy beige just didn't seem to look right, so they have a new home in our bedroom. The combination of silk flowers with the assorted dried grasses seems to be just the right amount of drama for the space.

After lunch and shopping, I felt immensely better and we headed home. While Jade worked on his online class, I put all the purchases in place. Then to cap off the day, we decided cookies were in order. (OK, I decided, but he'll eat most of them!) My first thought was to make jam thumbprints with some of the fig jam from last week, but then I spied the snicker doodle recipe. As I rolled the dough into little balls, it occurred to me to combine the two ideas and press thumbprint indentations into the snicker doodles. However, since I didn't refrigerate the dough first, the shape didn't hold. Not to be discouraged, I pulled a can of cream cheese frosting from the pantry and mixed in a good portion of fig jam. (I couldn't tell you how much since I just kept added jam until the icing tasted distinctly of figs.) Once cooled, the cookies became wonderful little sandwiches. Soft and cinnamon-y cookies, cream cheese and fig filling - what's not to like? This filling would be great between layers of spice cake, too. It might even be the type of filling Jeff is enjoying so much in Viennese tortes since it has the creaminess of good icing, but the taste of fruit. Overall, the day may have had a rocky start, but it had a sweet ending.

Snicker doodles with cream cheese and fig filling