What I've Been Up To ...

Long time no post!

In my defence, it isn't always easy to find time to sit down and write - let alone actually do stuff worth writing about - when you have a busy infant. 

But as busy as I am, life is amazing. Evelyn is just the best and I feel so privileged to get to watch her grow everyday. 

She is days away from 9 months and crawling, cruising on furniture, and just this Wednesday she took her first few solo steps. 

I swear I blinked and my baby turned into a kid. 

I am so in love with and so in awe of her. 

The other reason I've been away is because I've started a collaborative blog with my friend Kayla! 
It's all things lifestyle so you can expect a nice mix of recipes, fashion, parenting, DIY projects, travel, and more. 
While I definitely tend to be a lone wolf on a lot of things (I'm certainly introverted but may also have some control issues...), I have to admit that it is really fun working on a blog with another person. Having someone else's opinion and take on topics is wonderful and the collaboration means I don't have to stress about posting something every few days. We share the load (if you didn't say that like Samwise Gamgee then I'm disappointed).

Check out my other blog here! 
I'll try to keep posting here as well but it will likely be less often than over at birch & bubbly. 

Tuesday's Child : 27 & 28 Weeks catch up!

I missed last week as we were in Chicago so I've doubled up this week.
Check it all out here
And hopefully soon I can get a Chicago recap up!

Tuesday's Child : 26 weeks (6 months!)

My little doodle-bug is half a year! Where did those 6 months go?

Read all about what she's been up to here (plus check out her adorable 6 month picture. So begin the sitting pictures because it's impossible to get her to lay on her back anymore).

Gluten Free Brownies, or, baking with coconut flour

Guess what I did?

I baked!

two items!

I've been invited to a baking party next weekend and since two of my friends are gluten intolerant, the challenge is to find a gluten free recipe.

I've baked with rice flour before and wasn't particularly wowed by it, but I pretty much substituted it exactly for regular flour which you can't always do.

I debated buying the gluten free all purpose flour but decided to be more adventurous and instead I bought coconut flour to experiment with.

Turns out you have to make a few adjustments to your recipe when using coconut flour as it tends to be more absorbent than your standard all purpose flour.

After scouring Pinterest, my first experimental recipe was for a lemon loaf. 

It sucked.

It tasted too eggy, which was no surprise considering it called for 6 eggs. 

I tried again.

Brownies.

A big winner.

There's a nice hint of coconut (there would have been more if I had used coconut oil and coconut milk as the recipe calls for) so if you like the taste of coconut, grab some flour and give this recipe a whirl.

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a brownie pan with parchment paper.
• Over medium heat, combine 1/3 cup coconut oil, 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 cup honey until melted. In a heat-proof bowl, add 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Pour oil & butter over chocolate and allow chocolate to begin to melt, then stir until combined. 
• Add in 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1 tsp vanilla, and 2 eggs. 
• In a separate bowl, combine 1/2 cup coconut flour, 1 tbsp cocoa powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, and 1/4 tsp salt. Mix into wet ingredients with a whisk to get rid of lumps.
• Pour into brownie pan and bake for 25 minutes.  

Tuesday's Child : 25 Weeks

One day I'll do something worth blogging about again. 

One day.

In related exciting news though - keep an eye out for a new collaborative blog hopefully coming in the near future that a friend of mine has proposed! 

It will be all things lifestyle related - recipes, DIY projects, home renos, style, you name it, we're hoping to blog about it!

In the meantime, my kiddo slept overnight in her crib for the first time last night and it was bittersweet. 

Read all about it here :)

Tuesday's Child : 23 Weeks

It's Tuesday!

Kiddo is asleep on the couch beside me. 

I blogged!

Read all about it here

Tuesday's Child : 22 Weeks

It's Tuesday.

It's 7:16 am.

I've showered. I can see spots on my head where my hair has visibly thinned. I've had one cup of coffee. I've posted my Tuesday post.

Baby E was up at 5:45 this morning....

Today might be a long day.

But we're experimenting with solid (bit of a misnomer as it's 75% breast milk and not solid at all) food!

Read about it and watch the cutest video here 

And send long baby nap vibes my way today cause coffee ain't cutting it.