7.) Button

Yesterday, the 7th of February the challenge was buttons.  As I was not wearing any buttons, I took a trip to my desk drawer to see what buttons I could find.  I found two, one of a mannequin head and another that says "Goats Rock!".  Because of course who doesn't love goats, at least their hair when used in a fine commercial carpet.  I hope you enjoyed this visit into my desk drawer, please come again!

XO

6.) Dinner

Dinner on the 6th was delicious Pesto Chicken Pizza from Village Host Pizza here in Lexington.  The original Village Host is in San Francisco.  The owner of the Lexington location began working at the San Fran locale when he was 16 and loved it so much he wanted to open one up here in Lexington where he ended up living most of his adulthood.  He purchased the recipes from his former employer and recreated what he loved about the West Coast restaurant.  And we love it too, it is right next to my office (so it is convenient), happy hour (of course) and delicious pies!

XO

5.) 10 a.m.

hearts to start a convo.

Last Sunday before the Superbowl at 10 a.m. I was waiting in the car for my husband and snagged this photo of me snacking on some conversation hearts before running our weekend errands.  Notice I only have yellow and white hearts, my favorite flavors.

XO

4.) A Stranger, or a room full of them

It's officially Day 8 of the challenge and I've already failed, I'm hanging my head in shame!  Today I'm posted Day 4.  I was unable to find a stranger that I felt comfortable taking their picture so I have two options for this challenge: 

-The picture above is a stranger to me, I went on a concert tour in Chi-Town one summer and met this monk while walking in the park.  He took a picture with my "ugly doll", that strangely resembles a good friend of mine (it's the hairy chest).

-The picture below is the UK vs Florida game that the husband and I went to last night.  Which our #1 ranked team won by many points! I was technically in a room full of thousands of strangers. See them all?

Now that I've officially loopholed the heck out of this challenge, be prepared for a ton of make-up posts.  I have another busy week again and will be traveling tomorrow all day for a site visit 3.5 hours away from home.  So I'm trying to post when I can as of lately.  Looking forward to a relaxing weekend full of grading projects, which my students will be turning in today.

Happy Hump Day

XO

3.) Hands

Day 3 awaits us! Holding Hands with the hubby.  I just love him!

Today is my beautiful mother-in-law's birthday and we will be celebrating tonight.  Tomorrow is dinner with wonderful friends and Sunday is Super Bowl, again with the family.

Have a fantastic Friday! I am so glad that it is here.
XO

2.) Words

Day Dos Folks! I have held on to this magazine cover for a while now.  I keep it at my desk and pull it out every now and then.  That's exactly what I did today actually.  My first attraction was the font, how beautifully the letters started, ended, and interconnected.  Also, I love grey & yellow color combination.  But the word transformation applies to my life as of recently.  I am trying to figure out basically what I want to be and when.  

What I mean by that is, we hope to start trying for a family this year.  But due to outside constraints and complications (none health related God willing) the timing is not ideal.  And I am hoping very soon for that transformation of becoming a mother to happen sometime very soon.  

Also, I am enjoying teaching at UK so much.  I am slowly transforming into an educator.  I never thought I would become one, in the academic sense of the word.  But, I enjoy teaching my students about the professional side of design and that there's more to it than funky curved walls and theories.  Do I want to this forever? I am not sure yet. 

Thanks for stopping by! I am excited for the upcoming weekend! Lots of happenings with family and friends! 

XO

C

1.) My View Today

I wish this was more picturesque, but that is why this is a challenge right?

So here it is! My View Today! Bahaha! But this is the honest truth.  Most of my day has been at my desk working hard on a hotel design project.  We are beginning the drafting phase, which means a lot of:

-Pandora listening

-Hand cramping (which is why I have Silly Putty, lower right, to work any kinks out)

-List making

-Eye Crossing

Wish me luck!

another designer's view today, jealous!

I will also be seeing my wonderful students today, but thought that would be creepy to take a photo of them all!  Let's see what tomorrow brings friends!

XO

C

I Love A Good Challenge!

Thanks to my good friend Kristen at Adventures of Hummingbird (link here) and Fat Mum Slim (link here), I have decided to join them and participate in the February Photo Challenge!

This is such a great idea! I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this! Check out the blogs and spread the love!

XO

C

Super Saver

I'm sure you've heard of this fantastic show, but I had not as of a couple of weeks ago - Extreme Couponing!  I am obsessed and determined to give it a whirl (and hopefully to change the way I shop).  When we were on our anniversary and staying at a hotel I had the television on in the background while we were getting ready to go out and this show was on.  Hubby and I couldn't stop watching.  We watched four episodes back-to-back!  We wanted more! We wanted to learn more! We wanted to try it!

on TLC.

As a newlywed couple we are starting our new life together and in the early years of our professional careers.  Needless to say, we are not making six figures.  These crafty folks featured on the show are able to either feed their families for very little or donate their couponing talents to churches, people they know struggling, etc.  We were like, this could be awesome for us.  Grocery bills are one of the highest expenses for us these days besides car payments and insurance.  We even have cut our cable package down to save some dough.  So with the help of the Krazy Coupon Lady (great blog you should check out). I am on the right path.

This blog has templates and a 10 day plan to start you on the couponing path.  My goal is to buy about 4-6 newspapers this Sunday and to organize those suckers.  I already get supermarket weekly ads in the mail so I have been holding on to those to compare them against my coupons.  I'm not quite ready to recycle dumpster dive yet.

Working my way up to this.

However stockpiling items it important with couponing, which would ultimately have to be our garage if we turn this into part of our profession.

omigosh.

Some of my savvy idols have even been able to work part time in order to spend more time with their families.  That to me would be awesome, especially when we decide to expand our family train.  And saving money is always good, especially in this unknown economy we are in right now.  I'm finishing up my coupon notebook tonight thanks to the Krazy Coupon Lady's template so I'll be already to go on Sunday while going through the paper.  Here's to the 'ol college try!

No Excuse

My oh my how long has it been?  There is no excuse as to why it has been so long since I have posted anything.  Lack of inspiration? Busy with work? Stressed? Slightly Depressed?  A number of factors have contributed to this I think.

But during my absence I fell in love.  Fell in love with Pinterest! I have created so many crafts, tried out new hairstyles and created new looks with my existing clothes thanks to pinterest boards.  If you have checked it out, you really must.  And at first I didn't really get it and was slow to catch on, but through perseverance and spreading the love I have really enjoyed using this site. 

For my first example: I found a pin showing this messy wonderful updo (pins usually provide links which have shown me so many new wonderful blogs that are out there).  

http://www.thesmallthingsblog.com/

 This particular pin lead me to the attached blog and turns out it is wonderful.  The blogger is a twenty-something hair stylist and jewelry designer.  The site has so many wonderful tutorials and videos to get fun with hair.  Check it out here.

So I decided to give it a try.......Please note that they look nothing like the original, but it was fun to play and with practice I hope I get better.  

Somehow mine turned out really messy!

New bangs. yay! channeling zooey.

Bomb Diggity Grown Up Grilled Cheese

Now that I have your attention with the most clever post title ever.....

Every now and then the husband and I don't really feel like cooking a full course representing all the basic food groups, we just want something delicious and fast.  And for those nights we don't want our "eat like a kindergartener" food (which consists of peanut butter jelly sandwiches and mac-n-cheese) and our palette is feeling more adult, we came up with an alternative.  Using the recipe I found here at the Pioneer Woman's tasty kitchen blog, the husband and I found a delicious way to make Grown-Up Grilled Cheese.  These take no time to make, in this post I will show you my adjustments to the recipe.  Enjoy!

Round 'em up.  No I didn't pick that red paint color, ew.

The recipe calls for fontina cheese, but I most likely have either cheddar or mozzarella on hand.  I chose mozzarella for this sandwich of course and began to shred away (you could also just use the already bagged shredded mozzarella, but I did not have that in my refrigerator).  

This is the second time using cheese grater.

Another adjustment was my bread, since I am not prone to having ciabatta bread around I just used my good 'ol wheat bread.  Although I bet the thick sliced ciabatta bread would give this sandwich a delicious crunch, texture and flavor.  Please try it with ciabatta if you haven't to have it or pick it up at your bakery.  So just spread each slice with pesto on one side.  

Thank goodness pesto is legal, yum.

Spread olives over one slice.  I prefer green and kalamata olives, so I put them on my sandwich.  The husband likes black olives, so we like to customize according to our needs.

olive you.

Then sprinkle cheese over the olives.

Oh cheese.

This is where I get crazy, in lieu of a tomato slice we put pepperoni's on our sandwich.  What you say?  It really brings out the Italian in us though.  But our main reason, my husband was unsure of the sogginess factor from the tomato.  I bet it would be fine, he is just paranoid.  Do what makes you happy on your Grown-Up Grilled Cheese.

nom nom

Another difference, I do not have a panini maker so I used a frying pan.  I warmed a small amount of olive oil and fresh ground black pepper in the pan.  Placed the other slice of pesto covered bread on the pepperoni's and placed in pan. I basically cook like a grilled cheese from this point out, making sure all the cheese is oh so gooey and the bread is grilled and crunchy.  Once this is done, remove from pan and serve!

my mouth is watering.

 We serve our Grown-Up Grilled Cheeses with a fresh salad and that tomato we didn't use, we just put on the side of our salad!  So I apologize for taking a recipe and tearing it to shreds, but that's what makes cooking so much fun.  Experimentation is wonderful, especially when your husband is a willing guinea pig.

Talk Turkish To Me

Ever since I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe I have wanted to try Turkish delight.  When Edmund was asked to choose one item to eat, he chose Turkish delight.  In my mind I am wondering how good it must taste if that is the first thing to pop up in his mind.  My second thought, I want to try some and evaluate this for myself.  Alas, many years have passed and I have had yet to try it.  And my dream was almost forgotten until I was checking out a favorite blog of mine entitled Sprinkle Bakes.  The writer, Heather Baird, loves desserts and makes wonderful and beautiful desserts.  Check out her site a.s.a.p. it just makes you want to bake, or at least enjoy yummy sweets!

On June 6 of this year she did a Narnia post (link here) and made a beautiful white witch cake along with......you guessed it....Turkish Delight.  As I was reading the post, the directions and ingredients weren't so complicated that it scared me away.  Hallelujah! So of course I ran out and snagged the ingredients I was lacking to get started.  

Raring to go.

And what makes it even better, it is made in the microwave!

No oven needed here.

It was relatively easy to make, although I don't think my consistency was as thick as it needed to be before pouring into the pan. But it was my first time.  I used pink food coloring, but of course you could make it any color.

Does this remind anyone about Ghostbusters II?

I let mine set-up overnight which worked fine, but I wasn't actually able to cut them into servings and toss them in cornstarch and powdered sugar until I got home from work.

So the verdict.......

They turned out beautiful that's for sure.  The recipe called to roll the cubes into powdered sugar and cornstarch, I think next time I would just stick to powdered sugar.  They are very sweet, I could see how Edmund a sugar loving pre-teen would request this dish.  My husband enjoyed them and as for me, I think I am still on the fence.  Because it is so sweet I could only stand one or two bites and I have a major sweet tooth.  Turkish Delight was fun to make and pretty to look at and I am prepared to make it if I am going to serve it.  It would be fun to have the Turkish Delight colored for your favorite college hoops team or wedding colors for a bridal shower.  Make it if you get a wild hare like me and just has to find out what something tastes like.

Fauxbulous

I have been introduced to a wonderful blog and I want to share the love.  It is called You Are Not A Photographer and is fantastic.  The blog description is:

"Have you noticed how 50 girls you went to school with have set up shop as a "professional" photographer? Having a DSLR does not make you a professional photographer. We're outing these no talents with daily pictures from the worst of the web. We only post pictures that were from a photography "business," and we use that term lightly. Maybe you are one of those photographers. Have a good laugh at yourself. You submit the photos, and we provide the snark."

From a June 20, 2011 post.

Below each photo is a clever line:

"A close up of my kid’s slobber, I’ll treasure it forever.   Yes, this is seriously from a professional photographer.  I think this one will be tough, but how could the fauxtog improved this?"

These folks worthy of making it to this blog are deemed as fauxtographers. If you know a fauxtographer, are in need of a laugh, or you yourself are guilty of committing these acts please visit this site.  They are there to educate and help, not just to mock.  Although its hard not to think about the people that actually pay for some of these photos to be taken.  Enjoy!

The Best Giveaway

I am a daily ready of Shasta Anne's blog, link here.  She gives great skincare, makeup and fashion tips practically daily.  Check out her blog and like me, become a dedicated follower.  Also, she has great giveaways!  July is for a Clarisonic Pro Brush!  If you are an avid reader, tweeter, or a fellow blogger you have many opportunities to win any of her giveaways.  Hopefully I can start giveaways one day!  Giving gifts to improve people's lives gives you such a great feeling. So check her out today and enjoy reading!  Have a great week everyone!

Such a great skincare tool.