Falling Behind

Once again, I find myself playing catch up. I spend a decent amount of time reading various blogs throughout the day [how awesome would it be to get paid to blog?], yet I never seem to have the right motivation to work on my own blog; even when I have something awesome to write about. Here's what I [we] have been up to since September:

• Traveled to Bogota, Colombia - Peter spends about 50% of the time in Bogota, so I went down to visit him. And I must say, I love Bogota.
• Photo Shoot - I realized a few months ago that Peter and I haven't really had any photos taken since our wedding, two and a half years ago. We had a fun photo shoot with Angie from Angie Brement Photography.
  
• Made bread with my friend, Lesley - I seem to struggle with this on my own.
  
• Thanksgiving with the Mantell's.
  
• Black Friday shopping - Pretty successful, if I do say so myself.
• Decorated the house for Christmas, including a real tree [that I'm allergic to]
  
• Christmas Coke - It's not Christmas without Christmas cans of Coke. Yeah, it's weird.
  
• Saw Mannheim Steamroller in concert - While I was expecting more of their rock-influenced songs, it was enjoyable. We had great seats thanks to my in-laws.
• Peter's birthday - I made Peter a sushi-themed fondant cake, thanks to Lesley! Not having my own Kitchenaid makes things difficult, as well as having never actually worked with fondant before. Lesley made it happen :) I also got Peter a soda maker, so he can make his own soda and flavored water. Also, thanks to Lesley. His birthday present turned into his Christmas present since it couldn't get here in time [and I freaked out].

Worthless Women

This is an article that every man, and woman, should read. A few people have pointed it out, and I'm glad I took the time to read it. While the article is very self explanatory, I would love to hear some of your opinions, please :)

Worthless Women and the Men Who Make Them
Single Dad Laughing

Apple Picking

Every fall, we go to Carter's Mountain in Charlottesville for some apple picking. The mountain is fairly steep, and going back up with a ton of apples can be tiring. This year, I was smart. I got Kona a dog saddle backpack :) She hauled two loads up! We received many compliments on our ingenuity. Now, I just have to figure out what to do with a couple dozen apples...

Coming up the mountain.

Milk and Cookies Baby Shower

My friend asked me back in June, to throw her a baby shower. After many hours of planning, prepping, and a lot of frustration, it came together. The original theme was 'Milk and Cookies', but we added polka dots to match the nursery. I made all of the decorations, with slight help from my mom, so it could be unique. I'm a very crafty person and don't care much for 'boxed parties'.

I started out with one polka dot design, shown in the invitations, but Michaels didn't have the same paper when it came to making the "It's a Girl!" sign. Oh well. The Mom of Honor, I guess you could say, wanted to be very involved, and she provided the food and games. The shower was going to be outside in the park (perfect for fall), but I took pictures in the house ahead of time to make sure I actually took them. Here are pictures of what I was responsible for:

Invitations

"It's a Girl" before I added the ribbon to hang it up with.

Pom-poms
Easy to make, but you can also buy them on Etsy. Yes, I found pink polka dot tissue paper to match the plain pink and brown.

Thank You Boxes
I made chocolate chip, snicker doodle, and sugar cookies with pink and brown M&M's, wrapped in tissue paper to match the pom-poms. I put them in Chinese take-out boxes, and attached mini pom-poms to the handles.
The Cake
Oh dear. The cake is white with pink and brown polka dots. I had originally planned to use fondant, but because of rainy weather (moisture makes fondant nearly impossible) I wasn't able to make any, and the store was out of the pre-made stuff. I ended up doing butter cream frosting with polka dots, and a ribbon on the bottom. Not what I had hoped for, but still turned out pretty well :)
Drinks
White and chocolate milk to go along with the milk and cookie theme, and pink lemonade for those who didn't care for milk. It also cleverly goes alone with the pink, white, and brown color scheme :) I also provided water bottles that matched the rest of the paper-products.
I had a lot of fun coordinating the papers, colors, and ideas :)

Last Week's Find

A lady that I occasionally babysit for has excellent taste in home décor. I love skimming through her decorating books whenever I can. In her laundry room, she has a starburst mirror that I have admired for well over a year now. I was pleasantly surprised to find that same mirror at Michael’s last week! Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to shop, but love a good sale more. The purchase of a few items for a feather headband left me with a 50% coupon on any full-price item. Slightly outside the price of what I could justify for a mirror, the coupon easily justified the purchase.

I’ve never really been a fan of star burst mirrors, and this one is certainly one that you either love, or hate, which is why I was surprised by how instantly I fell in love with it.

This picture certainly doesn't do it justice, but I had to use my iPhone camera. And it's obviously not hung up...that will happen when we get the proper wall anchors and hook.

DIY

Recently, I have been feeling extremely crafty. I get it from my mom, who is beyond genius with her projects. She always made a lot of cute things for around the house, and now I feel more satisfied with homemade decor, rather than purchased - although, I do love a good shopping spree :)

For archive purposes, I have decided that this post is going to be a list of links to some of the projects I have been working on. This way, searching for key instruction websites will be kept down to a minimum. I'm lazy that way.

I have been put in charge of the decorations, cake, and goody/thank you boxes for a high school friend's baby shower. While I completely intend on blogging about it when it is all finished, here is a sneak peek of the pompoms that will be a focal point:

These are 2 fabric flowers that I'm trying to figure out a reason to make. They're absolutely adorable! If anyone has any suggestions regarding what I should do with them, let me know! They would be cute for headbands, bag accessories etc, but nothing that is applicable for me at the moment. The first is a regular flower, and the second is a rose.

Something I have wanted to make for a while now is a wooden sign with a phrase on it. Simple enough that I don't need to post an explanation - just a wooden plaque painted, with vinyl letters or stickers saying the phrase. I might decoupage some patterns with scrapbook paper on the plaque before adding the phrase. Now that it is planned, the search for the perfect phrase continues.

My current project is a feathered headband. I found a cheap headband that I could rip the accessories off of, got new ribbon, and found some scrapbook feathers and a charm on sale. $6.50 total. Hopefully I'll post pictures of it when I finally make it.

Mellow Yellow

When we failed to receive a US Census form, a representative came in person. The representative, who completely lacked a sense of humor, rolled down the list of questions - asking me my race. Instead of responding "white," I asked if there was a category for "ghostly white" - he stared blankly at me, not sure how to respond. I said I was joking and just to check the "white" box. Except I wasn't exactly joking. I am ghostly white.

There are some things about summer that are true no matter where you are. Girls flock to the sun (or tanning salon) to get their summer tans, rightfully earning the melanoma that is sure to come.

Except I stay white. Well, I turn a gorgeous shade of red, add a few new freckles, and return to my usual ghostly self. I don't spend hours in the sun expecting to gain some color - I slather myself in SPF 100. And I'm okay with that - usually. The difference this summer is I am a bridesmaid in my brother [and soon to be sister] in law's wedding, where the dresses are yellow. Don't get me wrong, I love yellow. I own several tops bearing the hue. But yellow only looks good when you are tan.

So this summer, I am experimenting with spray tans. I know, the sound of those words send shivers down my spine as horror stories of orange, streaky skin blow through my mind. Which is why I will have plenty of acetone handy in case the experiment goes horribly wrong. A neighbor recommended I go to a salon that she's been to, where they recommend a clear spray tan that adds a hint of color - enough to make me less ghostly, and more human.

Banana Pudding!

If I had my way, I would visit Manhattan as often as humanly possible, if not live there. I am one hundred percent in love with everything about it, including (and often emphasized) the food. Anyone who has ever been to NY has visited Magnolia Bakery. Or at least they should have. I have an undisclosed source that provided me with the recipe they use for banana pudding - one of my favorites!

Magnolia Bakery's Banana Pudding

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 cups ice cold water

1 (3.4-ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

3 cups heavy cream

1 (12-ounce) box Nabisco Nilla Wafers

5 cups sliced ripe bananas

In a small bowl, beat together the sweetened condensed milk and water until well combined, about 1 minute. I like to add about a cup (measured before) of pureed banana to the pudding. Add the pudding mix and beat well, about 2 minutes more. Cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight, before continuing. It is very important to allow the proper amount of time for the pudding mixture to set.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the pudding mixture into the whipped cream until well blended and no streaks of pudding remain.

To assemble the dessert, place 2-3 semi-crushed up Nilla wafers in the bottom of a clear plastic cup (the recipe calls for the entire dessert to go into one large glass container, but I prefer individual servings). Place several banana slices on top of wafers. Scoop a generous spoonful of pudding on top off wafers and bananas. Continue layering until cup is full. The recipe should yield about 18 individual serving cups. Cover cups tightly with plastic wrap and allow to refrigerate for at least four hours (but no more than eight).

New Recipes

I am no chef. Nor do I want to be. But I do love finding new recipes and playing with them to make them better. This week, I decided to try 2 new recipes. And so the search began. I have been an avid Food Network user to find something new, but I've never fallen in love with any. I've watched a few episodes of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and decided to look up some of his recipes for something new. The man is amazing. Finding dishes that both my husband and I would like (we dislike what the other likes, generally) is simple, and the cooking directions are easy to follow. There is always a description of the origin of the dish, which is interesting.

The first dish I made was Beautiful Courgette Carbonara, and it was a hit.

The pasta sauce is a great change from the usual Alfredo, Vodka or tomato sauce. The raw eggs kind of weirded me out, but you couldn't taste the egg. I used half and half instead of whole cream, and half the bacon it called for. I would recommend you allow the pasta and veggies to cool down to about about a luke warm temperature, otherwise the eggs scramble. I thought it had cooled enough, but they still scrambled a little. Overall, the dish was a success!

The second dish I made was Hunter's Chicken Stew (pollo alla cacciatora).


It's not much of a stew, but rather a sauce for the chicken. It takes a little while to prep, but if you space it out, it's really not that bad. I only marinated the chicken for about 5.5 hours, and only used chicken breasts. This is my new favorite dish. I was concerned about the anchovies, but you couldn't taste them. I would also suggest skinless chicken, because the marinade didn't reach the meat underneath.
Overall, it was amazing.

I would recommend using Jamie's recipes, and I am actually considering buying several of his cook books.

I've recently fallen in love with Crate and Barrel, and coincidentally, I'm redecorating our bedroom. After doing some research, I've come to the conclusion that I want a bright patterned duvet cover with some coordinating accents. Our new bedroom set is espresso colored, so anything against it would really pop out and look great. The reason I mention my new found love for Crate and Barrel is because I found a duvet cover that matches my requirements:

Crate and Barrel - King Duvet - $119
(Pillows and additional bedding extra)

I'm hoping the yellow will be as bright as it is in the picture, though comments on the website imply otherwise. Also, I wont get all the pillow covers in this pattern, some will be plain white, along with the bed skirt. Or a complimentary color. What is across from yellow on the color wheel?
Peter and I have decided to buy a house once I get a job (it would be dumb to buy a house and then have to move to a new location for work), and when that happens, I want to paint the bedroom walls a light gray. Thanks to jetsetmeg for pointing out this great idea! Since seeing it on her blog, I've noticed gray all over the place.

And I've fallen in love with gray.
I like this sample, but would probably go with a shade lighter.

Completely unrelated to gray or duvet covers, here are some random accessories that I have also fallen in love with...

World Market - Metro Clock - $49
(Ive wanted a big clock for the bedroom since we got our new furniture set)


Crate and Barrel - Savana Candle Holder - $18.95


Crate and Barrel - Canteria Mirror Set of Three - $189
(I know I can find a mirror set for a little less elsewhere)
But a set of mirrors like these are a great idea.

Anyway, these are my ideas, which are most likely subject to change :)

Oh the Places You'll Go!

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.”

I GrAdUaTeD!!!!

May 1, 2010

Some Inspiration

After reading the blog of a high school acquaintance, and becoming admittingly hooked, I have decided to switch it up as far as blogging goes. I am so tired of writing a blog about what were up to - especially since we don't have kids - so I am going to follow the trend and blog about whatever I want. Hopefully this will get me more into blogging since I won't feel as if I am bragging (unless it is necessary for monumental events), and it will be more about what I really am thinking/feeling. For my first "new" blog, I am listing some of my favorite blogs that I follow, using Megan's blog as my template.

The Inspiration: JetSetMeg
http://jetsetmeg.blogspot.com/ She has fun ideas and really tells it like it is.

The Laugh: FMYLIFE
http://www.fmylife.com/ For those of us who are lifted up by others' misfortunes. Okay, so it's kind of mean, but the fact that none of mine have ever been published make me feel good too, lol.

The Dream: Chris Around the World
http://caroundtheworld.com/ Because you really would have to be paid to travel to be able to afford the amount of traveling she does. Plus, it helps me get out of the middle-of-nowhere funk.

So these are only really a couple of the blogs that I follow. The almost religious following of the NYTimes and the Economist don't really count as "blogs," exactly. Oh well, that's generally where you can find me anyway :)

Valentine's Day and So Forth

Well, I'm not going to do a massive catch up of everything that has gone on in the past month or two, because it's been interesting, but there's no need to relive it. You can connect the dots :)

Anyway, Peter left for the airport around midnight after Valentine's Day. He did the greatest job with Valentine's Day this year! We got a new puppy! She was supposed to be part of my gift this year, but I got her a week early. Her name is Kona, and she's an all black German Shepherd (Samantha was a red and black sable, for comparison). Miss Kona is really cute and a lot of fun! On Valentine's Day, Peter gave me a "Love's Embrace" heart necklace from Kay's! I LOVE it! We spent the day together at home since he had to leave that night.

On another note, Peter got his cast off! And no need for physical therapy! It came off just in time, because this week he is in Columbia for work. Imagine going through customs after being in Columbia with a cast on...haha.