The sun won't always shine but tomorrow will find a way

My BFF IRL, Matt, gave me this award:
Wasn't that sweeeeeeet?

So, the rules are to tell you all SEVEN things about me.
I'll try not to tell you things you may already know.

Here we go:

1. I just applied one of those cleansing face masks [because I'm a girl and I like to pamper myself], but it is so tight and plastic like...I feel like the carver from nip/tuck. I may never do this again.
2. The reason I don't like cereal is because once upon a time, my sister won a year supply from general mills. And Nanny made us eat it every.single.day.................until it was gone.
3. I stayed in my pajamas ALL day yesterday and did absolutely nothing. & it felt amazing.
4. When I was a freshman in college, I used to wish & pray that I could take a semester off, to figure things out, and make my creative dreams come true. Now that it's actually about to happen, I DON'T WANT it to. I just want to finish my BA and get out of here.
5. The only regret I have [since the summer of 2007] is when I got my hair cut two weeks ago. I am pretty much traumatized, and don't plan on going through this again for a very, VERY long time.
6. Anytime I get down, I go back and read my OLDDDD livejournal entries and laugh [and sometimes cry] because I was so emotional/depressed/immature back then.
7. Sometimes I wish that I would have created this whole blog totally anonymously. But I am very thankful for all the friends I have met all the while being myself.

Okay, okay....so who do I think
is a beautiful blogger?

Leah @ The Leah Project

So, go check her out and let her know that you think she is a beautiful blogger, too!

Easy Creamy Guacamole Dip

For the longest time I hated guacamole.
Mostly because who ever was making it obviously didn't know what they were doing.
It was only a few months ago that I realized how much I actually love it....when I make it myself.
Okay, I'm totally not trying to sound self righteous, I just know what I like.
So, if you've had bad experiences with guacamole, maybe it's time you try it a new way.

Start off with:
1 ripe avocado, diced
1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
[try to stay away from miracle whip...it will make it too sweet]
1 tablespoon of sour cream
1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice
[I use the lemon juice from a bottle]
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
[if you elect to use garlic salt instead, do not add extra salt until you taste]
salt & pepper to taste
[avocados are really bland...so if you don't add enough seasoning, you will most likely NOT like it]

Put your diced avocado into a medium bowl. If you have a potato masher, I would suggest using it to create more of a paste. If you LIKE the chunkiness, leave it.
Next, add all other ingredients EXCEPT for salt and pepper. Stir until all is mixed in. It is important that you taste the dip before adding salt and pepper, just so you will know how much it needs. I suggest adding a little bit of salt at a time until you reach the amount that is perfect to you. Add the pepper, and serve [with chips and salsa or tacos]!

Not only is this recipe is so easy to make, it's also really cheap to make, and WAY better than store bought.

Don't want no paper gangster

As embarrassed as I am to say this....
I'm kind of obsessed with Lady Gaga.


I made Aaron download The Fame Monster for me
and I've been listening to it--
while walking to school
while doing my homework
while singing in the shower
while driving......
it's getting pretty ridiculous.

I knew it was getting bad when Matt called and I purposely didn't answer until my favorite part [yes, she's my ringtone, too] went off.

As if that's not enough...apparently Aaron has been listening, too.
Because the other night, while we were out to dinner with his mother, he started singing humming one of her songs.
When I looked at him with SHOCK on my face, he said, "What? I think Lady Gaga is my favorite pop singer."
I could have died.right.then.

WW::My Sweet Baby

Getting to know You

To play..Grab the questions..copy them onto your blog..answer them..and click the button above to link up!


1. Waffles, pancakes or french toast?
Waffles....all kinds. But especially chocolate chip waffles :)

2. Dream home..What would it look like?
Something straight out of the south. Big & Beautiful with at least one more bedroom than the amount of people living there.

3. Favorite sport to watch during the Winter Olympics?
None....

4. The first word that comes to mind when describing yourself?
Artsy

5. Dresses, pants (jeans, leggings, etc.) or skirts?
I LOVE dresses, but I usually settle for jeans.

6. What is your favorite time of day?
Night time, so I can watch my shows.

7. Beach or Mountains..which do you prefer?
The beach, definitely. You couldn't tell it by looking at my skin though.

8.Will you watch the Super Bowl?
Probably...but only because Aaron likes to pretend like he knows what is going on.

You're not going to believe this

If you follow me on twitter, you already know...
But incase you don't....

Aaron and I adopted a puppy yesterday!

Meet Kami
She is a bull terrier mix bull & terrier mix, and so sweet, we almost named her sugar :)

Rainy Day Blues

It's been raining/gloomy here all weekend.

I got this idea for a painting, and made it happen.

"Painting the City"

I think what I like most about this is it's simplicity.
I'm just not sure if it's 'done'.
It almost seems like it's lacking something.

Thoughts/Questions/Comments Welcome.

It's time to pamper yourselves

One of my good friends is a Pampered Chef representative. She recently shared a few recipes with me, and I am here to share them with you.

I tried both of them out today, and they did NOT disappoint.

Banana & Cream Cheese Crepes

They took close to an hour to make, from making the batter, making the cream, making the chocolate sauce, and then actually assembling them, but it was SO SO SO worth it.
HERE is the recipe.
I cut the recipe down by half. It was still a little too much for just Aaron and I.
It says to use fresh oranges....I just used 100% pure orange juice.
Also, it says to use chocolate syrup, but I made my own.

1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup milk chocolate chips
splash of milk
1 tbsp marshmallow fluff [optional]

In a small sauce pan, on low heat, add butter. Wait until it melts to add the choc. chips. Add the milk and stir constantly. You do not want the chocolate to scorch. If the mixture seems too liquid, add more chocolate chips, if it seems too thick, add a little more milk. Take off of the heat and add marshmallow fluff. Drizzle on crepes right before serving.

Ham & Cheese Calzones

The first time I had these was at my friend's baby shower. They were really good, and seemed really simple to make. The only thing I had an issue with was the pizza dough. Usually I make my own, but I wanted to go exactly by the recipe, so I bought the pre-made refrigerated kind. It didn't really cooperate. Maybe I'm just nuts, but when I got it out of the container, it wasn't a full piece, it was cut. Anyways, I learned my lesson, and will make my own next time so I can control it.
HERE is the recipe.
I know that it doesn't look like your typical calzone, but it definitely tastes like it.
If you [or your kids] don't like vegetables, this is a good way to 'sneak' them in. If you love vegetables, you will definitely love this.

So take a day and pamper yourself with good food!
You deserve it!

Someone stop this song

This week was probably one of the crappiest weeks we've ever had.
It seemed like anything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

So, to end this week of bad luck, we decided to treat ourselves to mexican.
We pigged out on chips and salsa, and drank a whole pitcher of margaritas.
And we didn't even think twice.

Aaron also surprised me with Appetite for Life, Julia Child's Biography, AND Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the cook book that the Julie & Julia movie was based on.

How sweet is that?!

And I bought us both Taking Back Sunday hoodies....

This weekend will consist of me renting movies while Aaron works, making bowls for ceramics class, and trying a few new recipes.

Have a great weekend!

Friend Swap

I'm always looking for new people to read and follow, but sometimes I am unsuccessful.

I decided to do a friend swap.

So, here's the deal.

I will list 5 blogs that I feel are 'follow worthy' for you all to check out.
Then, you can leave comments with links to blogs who you think are worth reading.

If this one is successful, I was thinking of doing this once a month.


Here are my five:

Southern Domestic Goddess

A Rush of Blog to the Head

Cooler Ranch or Nacho Cheese

Yo Mama's Blog

Smell the Coffee Lisa

It seems like everyone I know is Pregnant

Quite a few of my friends are either pregnant or just had babies.
And for some reason [maybe because I just got married?]
People keep asking me if I'm going to be next.
Well, not if I can help it.

Anyways, my friend Sabrina and I decided to throw our friend Jennifer a baby shower.
We didn't realize how stressful it was going to be.
We made all the food ourselves, rather than having it catered...and we decorated.
It was fun, but very exhausting.

Here are a few pictures from the party:
Us, and the mom to be :)


p.s. can someone please tell me why my comments are all of a sudden not being sent to my email address?!

The Mean Reds

One of my all time favorite movies is Breakfast at Tiffany's.
When I have a bad day, this scene always seems to pop into my head:

Holly: You know those days when you get the mean reds?
Paul: The "mean reds?" You mean, like the blues?
Holly: No. The blues are because you're getting fat or it's been raining too long. You're just sad, that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid, and you don't know what you're afraid of. Don't you ever get that feeling?

Today was one of those days.

I was very apprehensive about starting school today. Although I am only taking 12 credit hours, I am taking senior level classes, so they aren't just going to be a breeze.
I tried to stay as positive as possible all last night & in to today.
Since I will [hopefully] have a little more free time, I decided to try to get a job.
I heard the local dry cleaners was hiring, so I psyched myself up all weekend about getting up early this morning, getting dressed nicely, and going to apply for the job.
Except, when I got there, they told me they didn't have applications, and they were just having people write their names and numbers down on a sheet of paper, and they would call them later.
UMMM...SERIOUSLY?!

Who does that?
I was immediately let down.
I decided to go home and take a nap.....
only to have Aaron call me [from school] and tell me that he lost his car keys & I needed to come pick him up/bring the spare.
Great.

My first [and only] class today was on the complete other side of campus from where I had to park. I usually wouldn't be too upset by this, except for the fact that my University loves to inconvenience it's students, and has decided to do construction in the CENTER of campus, causing the construction company to put fences up alllll through the middle. Instead of just walking across campus to get from my car to said building, I had to walk COMPLETELY around. I know, I should just shut up. I couldn't help it though. I was already in a terrible mood, and this made it worse.

I thought 'at least when I get home, I'll get some peace.'
Only to find Aaron on the phone with the VA [veterans affairs].
I've mentioned this before, but for you new comers, I'll touch on it again.

Aaron is in the National Guard. He is also enrolled in ROTC through the University.
Because of this, he not only gets paid each month when he goes to drill, but he also gets his tuition, books, and he's supposed to get a stipend every month.
Well, the University 'forgot' to send in his paperwork to the VA last semester. We found this out in October, after he was supposed to be getting paid starting in August. They told him it would take 6-8 weeks to process those papers once the school finally sent them to the VA. Which meant that Aaron wouldn't get paid until December.
When he hadn't heard anything by the second week of December, he began calling them several times a day, only to be put on hold for 30+ minutes. He never got to speak to a representative. After a few days of this, they went on Christmas Holiday.
So, why am I bringing this up now?
Because today, he finally got ahold of them.
And guess what.........
His paperwork was still sitting on someone's desk....UNPROCESSED.
They told him it would take two weeks for them to process it, and then he should be getting paid.
As happy as I am that we finally know he is going to be getting paid [aka we can finally pay off the credit card].....that is money he should have been getting for FIVE months, money that if we WERE getting, we wouldn't have had to use the credit card.]
Isn't that ridiculous? I'm so glad he has a second job, because we would NOT have made it [financially] if we left it up to the school and the VA to do their job.

Here's to hoping that tomorrow is a better day.

WW::My Best Friend

this pretty much sums it up

just me, my bff jill matt, and our love/hate relationship.

Starting the new year out right...

The past few weeks I have been in kind of a funk.
I had something similar to an Upper Respiratory Infection the week after we came home from the honeymoon, and Thursday I finally dragged myself to the doctor to find out I also had a sinus infection. Yipee.
Needless to say, we didn't spend our new year's eve partying like everyone else.

Since I had been sick, I hadn't cooked at all.
Once I finally got some antibiotics in my system and started feeling better, I have cooked a lot.
I hope this is a sign of how the rest of the year is.

There are two dessert recipes I wanted to share with you all, mostly because they are super easy, and you can really impress someone when you tell them you made it from scratch!

Orange Pudding Cake

2 eggs, separated

1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 tsp orange zest

2/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup ap flour

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F.
Place a 9-inch cake pan, filled with about 3/4 inch of water, into the oven. Grease a 1 quart (4 cup) souffle dish and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour and salt. Add in egg yolks, orange juice, orange zest, milk and vanilla, and whisk thoroughly. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks. Stir or fold egg whites gently into lemon mixture, until well combined. Pour mixture into prepared souffle dish and gently place in water bath. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the cake has risen and begun to pull away from the sides of the dish. Serve warm. Serves 4.

With this cake, I decided to make a chocolate sauce. It was really simple, but you must stay right by the stove, stirring, at all times!

1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp milk
3 handsful [i know this isn't an accurate measuring tool, but i can't help it!] of semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips
1 heaping tbsp marshmellow fluff

Heat stove to very low, just above simmering. In a small sauce pan, melt the butter. Add milk and chocolate chops. Stir constantly, as to not burn the chocolate. If you think the chocolate is melting too fast, turn the heat down. Once chocolate is completely melted, add the marshmellow fluff. Stir until all the white has blended into the chocolate. If your 'sauce' is too thick, add 1 tsp milk and stir over heat. If your sauce is too thin, let sit for 10 minutes OFF of the heat. If it still isn't thick enough, add more chocolate chips over heat.


Chocolate Banana Pudding

3 whole graham crackers
1 ripe banana
3 cups milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup unsweeted cocoa powder
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup sugar

Use 6 single serve ramekins, or one large corningware. Crush up graham crackers into crumbs. Put enough graham cracker crumbs in the bottom to cover completely. Slice the banana into very thin pieces. Layer Bananas ontop of the crumbs, save some for the top. In a large saucepan, mix sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt. Stir in milk. Whisk over medium heat until pudding comes to a boil and thickens. [Do not leave the stove, you will royally mess this one up]. Cook for 1 minute longer. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour into the prepared dish(es).

Add leftover bananas on top. Chill. [I covered mine with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes. Just long enough for us to finish dinner, and dessert was nice and cool.]

Sunday Movie Reviews and an award!

I haven't done this in quite a while, but I thought I'd share my thoughts on a few movies I recently watched with you all.

First off, Julie & Julia
If you've been following me for any length of time, you know that I love to cook. As soon as I heard about this movie, I knew I was going to love it. Not only because of the content, but also because of Amy Adams. I love her. Anyways, this movie was so inspiring. It made me wonder why I never thought of going to culinary school. Seriously...if this whole art thing doesn't work out, I'm going. Even if you aren't into cooking as much as I am, you should still see this movie.

Next we have District 9
I went into this movie with a totally negative mindframe. Mostly because I didn't WANT to watch it [Aaron made me], and because I think aliens are stupid. I was pretty grossed out a lot of the time. I didn't really like the story line, either. I won't lie, the way it was directed and the graphics were really good. I just couldn't stand looking at those ugly prawns.

On to Paper Heart
The main reason I wanted to see it was because I love Michael Cera. I knew this was going to be some kind of documentary, but I still can't figure out if it was more of a planned thing, or if it was legit. Someone help me out with this. The movie was really heart warming. Charlyne Yi is so cutely awkward and really funny. I wouldn't say go out and rent this right now, but I would definitely say check it out when you get a chance.

Lastly, for today atleast, is The Hangover
I had heard great things about this, so I was pretty pumped to FINALLY get to watch it. It was hilarious! It definitely did not disappoint. Zach Galifianakis is absolutely hilarious. I can't even say anymore without giving anything away, but go watch it. I heard there was some kind of spin off or sequel? Is this true?

Moving on...........

My sister, Cassie, at Southern Domestic Goddess gave me the Happy 101 award!

Rules: List 10 things that make you happy. Then tag 10 other bloggers.

1. Waking up, knowing I have absolutely no obligations for the day.
2. Watching the food network, history channel, travel channel, and discovery channel, and dreaming of my future.
3. Spending hours preparing a meal, and hearing Aaron say 'That's PDG, babe.' [pretty darn good!]
4. Getting really random/awesome ideas for paintings while doing other things & having to rush to write/draw them in my idea book before I forget.
5. Spending time with Nanny, Dede, Cas, and Jackson.
6. Shopping for home decor/home organizers.
7. Cherry Dr. Peppers and Cheese sticks from sonic.
8. Gossip girl, Nip/Tuck, The Office, It's Always Sunny..., and all my trashy reality shows.
9. Traveling with Aaron, whether it be 30 minutes away or 300 miles, we always have fun.
10. Painting, drawing, printmaking, sewing.......it all makes me very, very happy.
    

Those who I think deserve this award:

A Rush of Blog to the Head
Cooler Ranch or Nacho Cheese
Cape Cod Love
Yo Mama's Blog
The Secret Life of a Retail Assistant
Toddler Awesome...
Viva Voce
Passion.Fruit
Boredom's Bounty
Leaves In the Spring